English Teacher share new single ‘Mastermind Specialism’
“Maybe spotlights aren’t for me,” Lily Fontaine sings on ‘Mastermind Specialism’, the latest offering from up-and-coming Leeds four-piece English Teacher. Her words come hot on the heels of the band’s sold-out UK headline tour, two shows across the Atlantic in Los Angeles and New York, and an appearance on Later… with Jools Holland, with each new show further proving her rightful place under the spotlight, despite her doubts.
The newest single from English Teacher only reaffirms the band’s unique place within an increasingly monotonous sea of post-punk and indie. Following from the vibrancy of their last single ‘Nearly Daffodils’, ‘Mastermind Specialism’ is a marked change of pace, swapping twangy guitars and uncanned laughter for twinkling keys and a collage of contemplative words.
The song finds English Teacher revelling in the minimal and melancholic instrumentally, but ‘Mastermind Specialism’ never feels thin. Harmonised hums and comforting guitars fill the spaces between Fontaine’s musings in their most exquisite release yet. The calming atmosphere is only interrupted by sporadic screeching guitars, a sonic representation of the inconclusive in-betweens that make up the lyrical content.
While ‘Mastermind Specialism’ is a new direction sonically for the band, the song excels most in its lyricism. The titular concept makes up the central metaphor, as Fontaine weaves the ever-debated question of “What would your Mastermind specialised subject be?” in with doubts from her own life.
In true English Teacher style, existential anxieties are disguised between literary and cultural references that may well double as potential specialised subjects. Most Brits would excel if the subject were to be Doctor Who, though Nosferatu seems a little more niche. Tinker, tailor, soldier, sailor becomes singer, porn star, writer thief. Sonic swells enter while Fontaine repeats phrases that serve to comfort and wound in equal measure – damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
‘Mastermind Specialism’ doesn’t quite find a resolution for those indecisions, never quite firming a specialised subject, a career, or a religion. But it doesn’t need to – the song finds its beauty in between piano keys and decisions that might never be made.
Listen to ‘Mastermind Specialism’, the new single from English Teacher, below.
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