English Teacher - 'R&B'

English Teacher are the latest offering to circle the conveyor belt at Nice Swan Records. The label which has previously released the likes of Pip Blom and Sports Team certainly seem to have their ear to the ground when it comes to unearthing DIY alt-rock.

I’m showing my age a bit here but imagine this was an episode of MTV’s Cribs. The Leeds quartet welcome you into their home and immediately lead you down a narrow and winding bass corridor lined with Joy Division posters for the first minute or so of ‘R&B.’ Then, just as you think you’ve sussed them out, they swing open a door and kick you into a spinning room full of evil clowns and strobe lighting for the remainder of the track. 

For anyone looking for a slightly more user-friendly description of the feel of this song and the origins of the band’s sound, I’ll lift this one right out of the press pack. There’s a bit of Sonic Youth in there. 

The title ‘R&B’ is something of a red herring which the band explain has a deeper meaning. 
“R&B is about the cyclical, productivity-diminishing paradox of low self-esteem and imposter syndrome-induced writer’s block that then fuels low self-esteem and imposter syndrome.”

With this their fourth single to date, the backing of Nice Swan should set English Teacher on the right path. They’re perhaps not quite ready to reach the peaks of one-time swans Sports Team who swam upstream and found themselves in the unchartered waters of a chart battle with Lady Gaga last Summer. Still, the early signs are good and having just started the tour of their pad, if they manage to lock out the writer’s block I bet they’ve got some great surprises in the fridge. 

Words by Richard Cobb

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