After a six year journey marked by growth, the Leeds outfit’s debut ‘This Could Be Texas’ arrives at last, a sharp and stirring assortment of their most outstanding work to date.

“I want this album to feel like you’ve gone to space and it turns out it’s almost identical to Doncaster.”, explains Lily Fontaine, lead singer and frontperson of burgeoning Leeds four-piece English Teacher. ‘This Could Be Texas’, the highly anticipated record in question, certainly holds up to these otherworldly ambitions, and is the latest in a string of high-profile Island Records releases from buzzy English alternative acts this year (alongside label mates Yard Act and The Last Dinner Party). Where their traction-gaining 2022 EP ‘Polyawkward’ bristled in the harsher edged shrubbery of a more angular post-punk sound a-la Windmill Brixton (or ‘post-wonk’ as they aptly reframed it upon release), it’s clear that English Teacher were not interested in being pigeonholed into this saturated genre hive. Though this debut release certainly still dabbles in aspects of the former, the four-piece have been busily honing and individualising their sound, venturing into new and eclectic terrain that spans dreamy art rock, indie pop and jangle all the way through to sorrowful pop balladry, to create something entirely unique and their own.

‘This Could Be Texas’ hunches us over a storybook, each page penned with a vivid poetic wonder that takes matters of the ordinary and scrawls them upon the fantastical. Unsurprisingly, with a name like English Teacher, a powerful and poignant grasp on lyricism fleshed out with witty humour plays a massive part in the almighty punch that this album packs. Fontaine’s Northern roots and hometown in Colne, Lancashire are a mainstay of the subject matter, and she makes evident her complicated and nuanced relationship with this heritage in various ways. At times, this manifests as deep love and nostalgia, such as on the sweeping ‘Sideboob’, a humorous ode to the natural beauty of the Pennine Hills. Carving out a twinkling pastoral landscape of slow, swaying drums and somnolent string legatos, Fontaine eroticises the curvature of the hill contours with lines such as “You take every sunset, And somehow make it sexier with your haunted asymmetry.”

In contrast, on jutting post-punky number ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab,’ this natural beauty is juxtaposed against the stark sociopolitical issues that pervade there, laying bare the “delusions of grandeur and inferiority from the perspective of a small town’s local celebrities.” On this track, and throughout the album, references to quintessential British culture and key historical figures are scattered like familiar faces in a crowd, furthering this deeply rooted aspect of nostalgia.

English Teacher do not shy away from social commentary, frankly discussing themes of inequality from race to class. This strong sense of integrity that informs and vitalises so much of their music expands beyond just lyrical themes; the band were recently seen in the houses of parliament making a political plea regarding the grassroots venue crisis. On the grumbling ‘R&B’, Fontaine stomps through the gravelly crunch of Nicholas Eden’s angsty bass twang and Lewis Whiting’s discordant guitar chugs. Highlighting the prejudiced assumptions she faced as a mixed-race individual, she repeatedly declares “Despite appearances, I haven’t got the voice for R&B.” The dynamically oscillating central track ‘Not Everybody Gets To Go To Space’ explores class barriers in a way that is both emotionally rousing and amusing, ending abruptly on the sharp words, “If everybody got to go to space, no one would ever want to clean.”

As a complete picture, what makes ‘This Could Be Texas’ so special is the richly eclectic musical language that English Teacher adopt to channel their equally striking lyricism. Like swirling, verdant floral collages, from billowing tulip petals to forget-me-nots, they build earthy, dynamic landscapes that ebb and flow into catapulting tunnels of arpeggiating melodic wizardry, Fontaine’s crisp angelic vocal hovering above. While there are moments that aren’t perfect, such as the slight lull in momentum with the autotune heavy ‘Best Tears Of Your Life’ and ever-so-slightly corny ‘You Blister My Paint’ that follows, these tracks do add a change of pace and another string of variation to the album’s already vibrant flora. English Teacher have gifted us with an endlessly smart debut record that is a more compelling and unique effort than many bands’ magnum opus. Strap in and be warned: this album is going to make you feel things.