REVIEW: English Teacher – This Could Be Texas

When your favourite song changes almost every time you listen to an album, you know that you might be in classic territory. That’s where I currently stand with This Could Be Texas. Early plays of the debut album from English Teacher had me firmly in love with songs I already knew, such as ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’ and ‘I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying’ but subsequent listens have unveiled the wonder of ‘Broken Biscuits’, ‘R&B’, and ‘Sideboob’. Oh, and right now, as I listen while writing this review, I just decided that my favourite song is actually ‘Nearly Daffodils’. Okay. Yes. I realise that I am now just listing nearly every song on the album, but that is just how good it all is.

Having seen English Teacher live at a couple of festivals last year, I was prepared for the shouty, loud power of songs like ‘I’m Not Crying’ and ‘R&B’ and it is those types of sounds that stand out on early listens. But now, with the album available, it is clear that Lily Fontaine’s skill as a songwriter and frontwoman go well beyond that. The lyrics and softly spoken verses of ‘Broken Biscuits’ for example – they show a wit and worldliness that is rare on an album so early in a band’s career. Clever songwriting is everywhere on the slower songs, too – lines like ‘I am the lamb you had for your tea/and I am the tiger who came’ are instantly intriguing on ‘Mastermind Specialism’, pulling you happily through a track that might otherwise have felt like filler.

And it is a surprisingly measured final third of the album that really does show how far this band is away from the post punk stereotype they are likely to be pigeonholed with. ‘The Best Tears Of Your Life’ even uses a bloody vocoder, for god’s sake. Fontaine and her bandmates show themselves to be daring, inventive, and bold in their decisions across the piece.

It is the one two hit of ‘R&B’ and ‘Nearly Daffodils’ that really does show this band at their brilliant best, though. While ‘R&B’ might be one of the more conventional sounding songs in a musical sense, it is the track where Fontaine’s personality most comes to the fore – cutting lyrics, a sense of who and what the band and artist want to be, and a crescendo that you can’t help but cling to. And then ‘Nearly Daffodils’ uses clever, poetic lyrics to tell a bittersweet tail of unrealised potential but all dressed up in an earworm of a tune and interesting, original instrumentation. This will be a highlight of many festival sets in the next two to three years, for sure.

If this review has felt a little chaotic, it might be because I can’t remember the last time I was this excited by a band. Watching them on stage when I barely knew their songs last year, I knew I was in the presence of a great stage act that I would catch whenever I had the chance. But there have been many previous times when I have felt that way, only to find the live recordings of their songs underwhelming. That is not the case here. English Teacher fill every song with tiny, surprising details that unveil themselves with repeated listens. Add a superbly entertaining frontperson to the mix, and you’re onto a winner. This will be one of the best albums of 2024.

Words by Fran Slater