After a summer of smashing it at festivals, Leeds’ English Teacher continue to remind us why they’re everyone’s favourite new band with ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’. The new single – the band’s first since signing to legendary label, Island Records – brims with confidence, wit and originality, but who would expect anything less?
Despite the song’s novelty title, front-person Lily Fontaine’s lyrics are pure poetry. Written while living in Pendle, Lancashire, they’re an ode to northern grit, strength and notoriety. Fontaine likens herself to the area’s raw, wild landscape, the legendary Pendle witches, and Charlotte Bronte; like these, she is both everywhere and nowhere in the town.
And you can hear this contradiction in the song’s instrumentation. The band’s angular, post-punk guitars collide beautifully with soaring shoegaze-infused harmonies, before crashing back down to earth once with snippets of arresting spoken word. Of her inspiration behind the track, Fontaine expands:
“...growing up in and around Pendle, how witnessing the social, economic and political issues that exist around there in juxtaposition with the beauty of the landscape and the characters that live within in it, has shaped me into the artist and person that I am. These semi-rural stories leak into most of my writing; in particular, this song tackles delusions of grandeur and inferiority from the perspective of a small town’s local celebrities. It’s split into two halves.”
The song is so special, so original, and, like the world’s biggest paving slab, it really sticks out! Nobody is making records like English Teacher right now. Bring on the album!
Produced by Marta Salgoni (Bjork, Animal Collective), English Teacher’s ‘The World’s Biggest Paving Slab’ is out now via Island Records. Watch the new video (directed by Claryn Chong) here:
Vic Conway
@thepicsofvic
Photo Credit: Tatiana Pozuelo
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