Album Review - English Teacher’s This Could Be Texas is Worthy of the Hype

With a beautiful 2024 Record Store Day yesterday marking the release of their "Live at the Brudenell Social Club" vinyl, today we have Liam reviewing the hot off the press debut album by English Teacher as your Sunday reading!

Photo Credit: SARA CARPENTIERI

English Teacher’s long awaited first full release “This Could Be Texas” is as ambitious and confident a debut as you are ever likely to hear, cementing their status as one of the must-watch bands coming through the British post-punk scene.

The English four piece had released a handful of songs before this album, including an early version of album single “R&B” all the way back in 2021. R&B is fast, instantly catchy and gives a sense of the bands humour that comes through at various points in the album, with Lily Fontaine remarking “Despite appearances I haven’t got the voice for R&B even though I’ve seen more colours shows than KEXPs” over and over.

Other singles “Nearly Daffodils” and “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab” retain this same ferocious energy and attitude that only a band sounding as tight as English Teacher do on this album could pull off to this extent. “I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying” carries this swagger into the latest example of the band’s ability to make a post-punk hit, carrying a practically spoken chorus akin to popular bands such as Dry Cleaning with their own individual trademarks in a track that is sure to be a crowd favourite to sing along to.

A lot of the album is more mellow than the three popular singles would lead unfamiliar listeners to expect. “Albatross” opens the album, immediately plunging into introspective subject matter with hints at the science-fiction esque bites of world building that the album creates. Lily Fontaine remarks "Don't think you're special She's not the only one haven't you seen the sky at night? There's millions of them."

Just before the two-minute mark of the song, giving way to a beautifully contemplative guitar part, a few piano keys and an eerie electronic sound, perfectly combining the mystery and the beauty of the album, setting the tone for what’s to come.

“Broken Biscuits” is a lyrical highlight on the album, with this intensely British simile for splitting prescriptions being followed by a withering string section providing apt commentary on the public health situation in the United Kingdom, becoming more haunting on each listen.

A lot of the middle section of this album contains dreamy soundscapes to go along with the previously mentioned more energetic tracks. “Mastermind Specialism” containing a beautiful humming harmony throughout its gentle 4 minute 40 second run time. This leads into the title track which carries more social awareness “that country is in a bad state, there’s a familiar atmosphere about this place” and yet again givers away to a lengthy instrumental section. This time building with notes that are stabbed and repeated before fading out into a more ethereal final few seconds, which acts a springboard for the album’s second half.

Not Everybody Gets to Go to Space brings the electronic sounds lurking in a few of the previous tracks to the fore in its first 25 seconds, culminating in questions about what “Who’ll bring the ships?” “And who’ll bring them back again?” are repeated before R&B and Nearly Daffodils provide successive bursts of energy into the tracklist.

The last quarter of the album is perhaps my favourite, continuing the luscious soundscapes of the album whilst more actively playing up the bolder production choices. “The Best Tears of your Life” uses autotune to great affect over some of the most atmospheric and moody production on the album. This followed by “You Blister My Paint” a more lyrically dense track which continues the subtle touches of vocal manipulation from the previous track. Lily Fontaine restrains her vocals less and less as the track goes on, sounding pained over slow, brooding strings which results in the most emotionally resonant track of the album for me.

“Sideboob” then drums itself in, presenting an other-worldly synth sound over sprinkles of glistening electronic sounds, making for the most memorable instrumental on the album. There are also prominent male vocal harmonies on this track where Lily Fontaine presents her doubts about falling for someone but doing it anyway. “Not even a mountain, but I still can’t make you move” perfectly capturing the enigma someone becomes when you’re in love.

The album concludes with Albert Road, presenting an older couple who have only learned hate and prejudice. This track ending in an ahh which turns from a scream into harmonised melody feels like an optimistic ending for this ambiguous record.

English Teacher’s debut is a stunning example of post-punk at its very best, combining depth, ambition and an ear for melody into fifty minutes of the most affecting music I have heard all year.