The indie scene is predictable if only for one thing. Shifting from darling to darling, occasionally it flips back to which dinosaur/90’s legends are improving their pensions via Academy circuit tours they would’ve scoffed at back in the day; generally though the discover/consume/spit back out hamster wheel repeats itself endlessly.
That may sound like an incredibly cynical take, mainly because it is. But the evidence to support the theory is there for all to see, nano careers and buzz bombs from Powder to black midi to whoever we’re going to be talking about this time next year. Rarely does a band, artist or whoever look like they’re genuinely capable of breaking the cycle. Even fewer actually realise it. English Teacher are at least half of the fomer.
The jury was out for the early signs, from the toe-tapping debut single R&B onto 2022’s Polyawkward EP, both of which evidenced talent, but swam in a pool brimming with contemporaries. This Could Be Texas however takes the Leeds quartet’s promise as read – and then elevates it unmistakeably.
There are still swatches of post-punk – R&B makes a reworked appearance – but through singer Lily Fontaine’s vivid depictions of life and dreams, most of the other material takes on a life of it’s own. Journeying through arty experimentation (Not Everybody Goes To Space) shoegaze (World’s Biggest Paving Slab) and krautrock (Nearly Daffodils), boundaries are pushed everywhere, but it’s on both the title track and the soulful closer Albert Road that English Teacher confirm themselves as contenders for the longest of hauls.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 
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