An intimate study of that gnawing post-inebriant affliction – some call it ‘Hangxiety’, others, aptly, ‘The Fear’ – English Teacher’s latest single, ‘A55’, accompanies the announcement of their debut EP, ‘Polyawkward’
Flaxed as ever in Lily Fontaine’s sticky syllables, ‘A55’, at first, just blurs into view. Mournfully-plucked arpeggiations mull in a lo-fi cassette-tape hiss, veiled in that withering comedown vulnerability a la Sorry’s ‘925′. Our narrator keels over the sink, kept on-hold with the retching-white telephone dreaming of tap water, of Beroccas, of feeling better tomorrow.
But pangs of tension jolt out and in. English Teacher tease eventual breakdown with intermittent crescendos of encroaching mania. It’s not unlike how irrationality steals into the post-alcohol mind: those excruciating thoughts about how last night was nothing but one unspeakably antisocial act.
Just as previous single ‘Good Grief’ proudly demonstrated for us, English Teacher are savvy yarn-weavers and expressionstic stage-setters. Their lyricism burrows psychic-deep; yet it outwardly expands from time to well-appointed time, with busting amplitudes of noise. Take the astounding climax here, ‘A55’’s final resolution – it Radioheads towards the void, roiling and churning, synth-strings zinging. It’s executed with cannoning precision, and that flair for keeping our heads fixed on English Teacher’s increasingly worthy vicinity.
