English Teacher They are another of those young bands that arrive with the ‘hype’ shot up from the United Kingdom, covers in the NME, appearances at Glastonbury or Jools Holland before releasing their first album and, finally, a good amount of reviews that look like promotional texts, with the usual 10 from the NME (is there another publication that produces as many 10s a year as they do?). But, with all possible reservations, I can say that this “This Could Be Texas” I thought it was a remarkable debut.
Just listen to what they have done with “R&B”, the song they debuted three years ago, listening to their first version from 2021 and then the one that appears here, we can see a band that has evolved a lot, going from being a kind of copy from Dry Cleaning to an entity with a much more pronounced personality of its own, managing to go from being a band that is looking for its sound to one that has already found it.
And they have done it, leaving behind all the restrictions that come with that label that they put on all the new British guitar bands, post rock. Yes, it is clear that these guys from Leeds have listened to Dry Cleaning, Black Country, New Road or Squid, but they have decided not to be limited by any type of genre, here there is math rock, but also indie, prog and even sound. , chamber pop.
Although perhaps its most distinctive element are the lyrics of Lily Fontaine, the most incisive of the new voices that have emerged in recent years, capable of poetically mixing, without sounding absurd, the everyday with the general, the personal with the political, and her insecure position about her new status as a star (“I’m the smallest celebrity in the world“).
Musically the band does not seek immediate reward, playing with the structures and tempos of the songs, being able to combine different genres in the same song, such as in “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab”, one of the presentation singles, where other details are added to a clearly post-rock song, such as those touches of a dream pop or shoegaze band that combine perfectly with its angular and sharp riff. Or in “I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying” where guitars that seem taken from the Smiths’ Johnny Marr are given a crazy recitation and then they stop it and speed it up to taste, turning it into something very different.
Every time the bass of the aforementioned begins “R&B”, my mind begins to sing “Ana has… Ana has a brother… A twin brother”, knowing perfectly well that almost certainly English Teacher have not heard Surfin Bichos in their lives. In this song Fontaine talks about the perception that people have because of the color of her skin, saying that she doesn’t even have a voice for him. “R&B”nor is it his thing. “Nearly Daffodils” It is the most direct song they have, where the band sounds more direct and cohesive, a song about a breakup with another great phrase “You can bring water to daffodils/But you can’t make them drink” that is related to that indecision in the heart of “Mastermind Specialism” where the inability to make a decision becomes a decision in itself.
In the title song they do sound like the first Black Country, New Road, those from the first album, like those music students who want to put a thousand and one things in the same song, but then they are capable of stealing your heart with one song as simple and spartan as “Mastermind Specialism” that because it doesn’t have one, it doesn’t even have a chorus, without that reducing its emotional explosion in any way. And, despite everything, the heart of this album is in its quietest moments, where they introduce elements of chamber pop, such as the song itself. “Mastermind Specialism”.
The last four songs are simply magnificent, starting with “The Best Tears Of Your Life” where light electronic touches and a much more modern intonation are allowed, along with some light touches of piano that make you fall in love until you reach a tangle of sounds and instruments in an exciting finale. It’s even better “You Blister My Paint” in which they sound as if they had decided to put a different melody to the “The Great Gig In The Sky” by Pink Floyd, a marvel that shows that Fontaine may not have a voice for the “R&B” but she is a singer capable of moving.
In “Sideboob” There are some light synths accompanying Fontaine’s voice, there is also a recitation, which seems like a poem, and brings back all those feelings of insecurity of the singer: “You catch every sunset and somehow make it sexier. With your enchanted asymmetry, someone has brought a camera crew, they’re exploring your story. Now you’re on the news And it’s driving me crazy, ’cause everyone wants to get to you and they don’t even know my name.” Something that, obviously, is going to change with this album.
The end comes with the exciting “Albert Road”, A subdued beginning, like some kind of piano ballad, albeit with a menacing guitar deep in the background, finds Fontaine contemplating prejudice and modest origins, but his words and the instruments around them quickly gather momentum and build to a huge crescendo. . At the end of the song, the screams come to expel the restless emotions and frustrations from her. It’s a grand finale.
This is the second best debut I have heard this year, after that of The Last Diner Party, a group that also shares everything said at the beginning, and which has also been viewed suspiciously. There’s no reason to do it, both bands are here on their own merits, the only problem they’re going to have after such a promising debut is that the second album is going to be difficult… What a problem.