That of the British English Teacher is certainly to be counted among the most anticipated debuts of the first quarter of 2024. The band originally from Leeds, after the acclaimed EP “Polyawkward” of 2022 and a handful of undoubtedly interesting trailblazing singles, has distributed, via Island Records , the long-awaited long-track debut titled “This Could Be Texas.”
The English indie-rock/post-punk formation formed by Lily Fontaine (lead vocals, guitar and synthesizer), Lewis Whiting (lead guitar and synthesizer), Douglas Frost (drummer) and Nicholas Eden (bassist) had already made a good impression, for variety stylistic, in previous appearances.
Gathering ideas from all over the world alternativesthe product packaged by the quartet was able to provide continuous twists during the hour-long duration of this substantial artistic document, which benefits from the fundamental contribution in production of our Marta Salogni, an absolute champion in the sector, unanimously recognized worldwide .
The inspired, incisive, astute and allusive themes, exposed by the rich voice of the singer and author Lily Fontaine, are not at all ordinary, deviating from the contents that we are usually accustomed to intercepting on target of similar extraction. The ways in which topics such as indecision, sense of belonging, anguish, mental health, existential and social reflections are treated, insinuate themselves between instrumental articulations, of commendable consistency, which constantly shift, even within the same piece, between moments of quiet and flashes of tension, as if an imminent storm was accumulating energy for the overflowing explosion: a latent excitement, which persists throughout the album and which turns out to be one of the many aces up the sleeve.
To the melancholy attraction spread byopener “Albatross”, contrasts the pungent alt-rock twists nineties of the lead single “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab” and the structured textures placed between Black Country New Road and Dry Cleaning of the excellent and poetic “Broken Biscuits”, which, between painful piano and wind notes, offers one of the best passages in ladder. An initial triptych of absolute relevance, which exposes a remarkable stylistic catalogue, surprisingly mature for a band made up of such young artists. The formula is forged on a purely guitar sound, which contemplates an important dose of usability, a condition that makes a proposal positively accessible that continuously lives on refined and contrasting melodic phases.
The frenetic bass that drives the abrasive and obsessive “I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying”, the slothful and smeared alt-pop resonances of the other single “Mastermind Specialism”, open the scene to the title track, another highlight, where it sprechgesang of Lily expands, with obsequious intensity, on the insistent harmonies of the piano, building disjointed patterns, gradually loaded with changing sounds and tones, which sometimes even venture on stylistic features dear to progressive-rock. A strategy that is repeated, in some way, also in “Not Everybody Gets To Go To Space”, in this case involving some instrumental jolts of more vigorous intensity.
Nicholas Eden’s bass leads “R&B”, with sharp, raw and anguishing lyrics, one of the group’s oldest songs (2021), reproduced here in an updated and strengthened version, aimed at revealing further aesthetic virtues of the band.
“Nearly Daffodils”, yet another trailblazer single, extends with a high degree of perceptive agitation, picking up pieces along the way motorik crashing on distorted riffs, while the token ballads is entrusted to “You Blister My Paint”, dark, sweet and sinister, distributed between piano notes and strings that recall both the intensity Beatlesian than the dark power of Lana Del Rey.
The false-jazz rhythms mixed with vibrant 80s synthesizers create a further stargate dreamlike into which to dive the flattering “Sidebob”, the perfect accompaniment to the closure accorded to “Albert Road”, through which Lily describes the evidently autobiographical growing up experiences of a mixed-race woman. The guitar notes sail between brass and synthesizers with clear warmth; a meaningful, epic track that simmers to reach the soul in a lasting way.
A mixture of great prestige, which combines a particularly demanding lyricism with a noteworthy communicative ability and thick melodies, distinguishes English Teacher in the crowded world of indie-rock and modern post-punk, a classification, the latter, which can never be too loved by the group, which believes – well in reality given the versatility exhibited – to propose an artistic message that tends to escape the patterns imposed by the genre. It is true that the wave identified by many as the Crank Wave (the English post-punk revival that progressively grew after Brexit) has decidedly varied peculiarities and personalities, but English Teacher, if you really wanted to include them in this trend, seem to show rather innovative ambitions.
“This Could Be Texas”, as mentioned, is their principle, chock-full of ideas, mostly perfectly centered, which now represents the launching pad for a path that could head towards a more specific direction in the future. For all this and probably much more, there are numerous reasons to consider English Teacher a band to keep an eye on with extreme attention.
04/23/2024
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