Facts and Stats: English Teacher are a British band who released their debut This Could Be Texas in April 2024 to some acclaim. Live EPs followed quickly, eight days after for 2024 Record Store Day Live At The Brudenell Social Club, and then in August 2024 Live from BBC Maida Vale, made up of tracks from sessions recorded for BBC Radio 1, 2 and 6 Music.
Figuring out from which sessions the recordings come from for Live from BBC Maida Vale takes some research: the earliest was the BBC Radio 1 session of 6 January 2024 (“This Could Be Texas”), then we have a BBC6 session on 15 April 2024 (for “You Blister My Paint” and possibly “The World’s Biggest Pavement Slab”). The covers are from the BBC 6 Sofa Session of 3 April 2024 (“New York I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down”) and the BBC 6 Sofa Session of 16 July 2024 (“Birds of a Feather”).
What The Critics Thought: Ink19 (30 August 2024) said that it’s a “well-curated five-song EP, a captivating encore stringing together lovely and gripping selections from various BBC sessions. Fontaine, in particular, shines, her quivering vocals even more expressive and full-bodied here”.
What We Think: English teacher demonstrate their versatility through their breadth of performances with a spikey version of “The World’s Biggest Pavement Slab”, a dramatic “This Could Be Texas” with its spoken word interludes, and an intimate delivery of “You Blister My Paint”. The covers will be of particular interest to fans; Lily Fontaine’s vocal takes flight on the cover of Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” and there’s a suitably idiosyncratic version of “New York I Love You, But You’re Bringing Me Down” (originally LCD Soundsystem).
Formats: 10” chalk white vinyl (Rough Trade), 10” crystal clear vinyl, download.
BUY UK
BUY US
BANDCAMP
ROUGH TRADE
Label: Island Records
Release Date: 30 AUG 2024
Poetic Justice 
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