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Feb 15, 2024 By Mark Redfern Photography by Denmarc Creary

Leeds, England-based four-piece English Teacher are releasing their debut album, This Could Be Texas, on April 12 via Island. Now they have shared another new single from it, “R&B,” via a music video. An earlier version of the song was released in 2021, but it was reworked for the album. Sarah Oglesby directed the video. Watch it below.

English Teacher is Lily Fontaine (vocals, rhythm guitar, synth), Douglas Frost (drums, piano, vocals), Nicholas Eden (bass), and Lewis Whiting (lead guitar).

“Despite appearances, I haven’t got the voice for R&B,” Fontaine sings in “R&B,” tackling the preconceptions and prejudices she’s grappled with in the music industry.

As Fontaine explains in a press release: “There’s a lot of judgment that I had early on. Being a woman of color fronting a band shouldn’t even be a thing to talk about; we need to just get on with it—only then will the narrative around that change.”

The song is also inspired by a breakup, as Fontaine explains: “When I was with him I had writer’s block and to add insult to irony, the only idea I had was for an R&B top line—the genre people always assumed I worked in. As soon as he ended it, I converted that top line into the lyrics and riff for ‘R&B,’ and took it to my three best mates. Putting the effort that you could potentially put into a partner, back into yourself and your career, is cool and sexy and gets you signed to Island Records and writing press quotes in a tour van in Holland and you get to meet Jools Holland. Thanks lad.”

This Could Be Texas features three previously released singles by the band: “The World’s Biggest Paving Slab,” “Nearly Daffodils,” and “Mastermind Specialism.”

When the album was announced they shared a new song from it, “Albert Road,” via a music video. “Albert Road” was one of our Songs of the Week.

“I want this album to feel like you’ve gone to space and it turns out it’s almost identical to Doncaster. It’s about inbetweens, it’s about home, and it’s about Desire Paths,” said Fontaine in a previous press release.

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