- Source: This Could Be Texas
This Could Be Texas is the debut studio album by the British group English Teacher, released on 12 April 2024 through Island Records. It was produced by Marta Salogni. The album drew acclaim from critics. It won the 2024 Mercury Prize.
Critical reception
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, This Could Be Texas received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 from 15 critic scores. At AnyDecentMusic?, the album scored an 8.6 out of 10, aggregating 19 reviews.
Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Marcy Donelson described it as "chaotic, poignant, pretentious, fascinating, and thoroughly entertaining despite or because of it all." She concluded that "it will be interesting to see how the band try to follow up such a panoptic debut." Uncut stated that "There are surprises everywhere. While 'R&B' and 'Nearly Daffodils' are sprightly, irreverent post-punk, the influence of Black Country, New Road and Radiohead are evident on the complex, proggy title track and the diverse, hushed final third of the album. Lily Fontaine's lyrics [...] are deep and funny". Jack Faulds of The Skinny wrote that This Could be Texas "sees English Teacher beginning to consolidate and take the already-delicious sounds introduced on their Polyawkward EP to even greater heights".
Kieran Macadie of The Line of Best Fit said that it "could be one of the finest debuts of the decade, with every band member shining in their ability and craftsmanship" and highlighted "one particular thing that propels this on listen is something the other bands don't and have and never will – northern charm". DIY called it "an album that unfurls itself with each listen; it is neither easily categorised nor, you suspect, written with quickly-digestible earworms in mind".
NME's Andrew Trendell felt that the "moments of weight are always lifted by joyful and curious twists, the pathos by a human humour, and the mathier bits are never too wanky", describing it as "everything you want from a debut; a truly original effort from start to finish, an adventure in sound and words, and a landmark statement". John Murphy of MusicOMH noted that is "full of confidence, heart and ambition and marks them out as the most exciting new band in the country" and contains "scrappy knockabout rocky anthems and big, enormous ballads with quasi-classical piano that will tear your heart to bits".
In the review for Pitchfork, Caitlin Wolper claimed that "English Teacher can’t leave a song alone: Not a track goes by without a twist or complication, whether a time-signature change, an instrumental flourish, or a sudden wall of sound. .... Most promising, and core to This Could Be Texas, is the band’s interest in melding indie-prog, rock, folk electronica, and post-punk into a new package."
= Year-end lists
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Track listing
Personnel
Musicians
Nicholas Eden – bass guitar (all tracks), piano (track 13)
Lily Fontaine – vocals, synthesizer (all tracks); piano (tracks 2, 12, 13)
Douglas Frost – drums, percussion, synthesizer (all tracks); piano (1, 3–13)
Lewis Whiting – guitar (all tracks), percussion (tracks 1, 3–13); programming, synthesizer (7); piano (13)
Additional contributors
Marta Salogni – production, mixing, programming
Heba Kadry – mastering
Grace Banks – engineering
Carlo Salogni – saxophone (track 3)
Commercial performance
As of 25 July 2024, the album sold 12,960 units in the UK.
= Charts
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References
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