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Leeds indie frontrunners English Teacher announce debut LP ‘This Could Be Texas’. Preceded by initial LP reveals ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’, ‘Nearly Daffodils’ and ‘Mastermind Specialism’, which were all A-listed on the BBC 6 Music playlist, English Teacher’s remarkable ascent continues to reach new levels, having completed sold-out debut UK and US headline runs last autumn, following their thrilling debut appearance on Later With...Jools Holland. Announced as Independent Venue Week Artist Ambassador for 2024. Lead singer Lily Fontaine explains, “I want this album to feel like you’ve gone to space, and it turns out its almost identical to Doncaster. It’s about in-betweens, it’s about home, and it’s about Desire Paths." In several songs, Fontaine reflects on growing up as a mixed-race individual in a place, she says, “where many didn’t have any tolerance towards people who are different” in a post-Brexit landscape.

The debut album by Leeds frontrunners ‘This Could Be Texas’ will be released on 12th April 2023.

Lead singer Lily Fontaine explains, “I want this album to feel like you’ve gone to space, and it turns out its almost identical to Doncaster. It’s about in-betweens, it’s about home, and it’s about Desire Paths."

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: It’s impossible to categorise ‘This Could Be Texas’ accurately, I mean, we’ll whack in in the indie section because in places, it does broadly fall under the sort of music you’d expect to find there. We’ve got distorted guitars, soaring synths and snappy percussion beneath Lily’s perfectly placed, athletically chameleonic vocals, but keep listening and there are hints of post-punk and art-rock, modern classical and even folk seeping through as things move further along.

For me, the perfect opening piece is the beautiful and mysterious ‘Albatross’ which is so melodically intricate and deftly delivered that while it gives you an idea of what thematically diverse delights are in store, it doesn’t show you quite how well the band manage to pull together the sometimes disparate sound worlds. There are playful, minimalistic growers like ‘Mastermind Specialism’ which could comfortably sit on an Explosions In The Sky album, or the vocoded rhythmic nu-jazz leanings of ‘Best Tears Of Your Life’. A particular highlight for me is the dreamlike lounge of ‘Blister My Paint’, which sounds like a touch of psychedelics in a smokey late night bar, or the acidic groove and wry vocals of the instantly recognisable ‘R&B’. While there are moments in ‘This Could Be Texas’ that feel like they stick out enough to not smoothly transition to the next phrase, the fear is never realised. A wonderfully forged, impeccably conceived album and a sure sign of what’s to come from English Teacher.