Leeds indie-rockers English Teacher have won the 2024 Mercury Prize for their debut album This Could Be Texas.
The Yorkshire band triumphed over the heavily-hyped odds-on favourite Charli XCX, The Last Dinner Party, Corinne Bailey Rae, Portishead vocalist Beth Gibbons, Ghetts and more at the ceremony, held at Abbey Road studios in London on September 6.
The band admitted that they weren't expecting to win the prestigious award, telling the audience, “We didn’t really plan this far!”
The prize includes £25,000 for the quartet, who released This Could Be Texas in April.
The judging team declared: “This has been a really tough year for the Mercury Prize judges, with the final 12 albums being so reflective of our diverse & rich musical landscape. There was so much passion and enthusiasm for each one.
“In the end, though, we did agree that This Could Be Texas by English Teacher stands out for its originality & character. A winning lyrical mix of surrealism and social observation, alongside a subtle way of wearing its musical innovations lightly, displays a fresh approach to the traditional guitar band format. This Could Be Texas reveals new depths on every listen; the mark of a future classic.”
Talking about the album to The New Cue in April, vocalist Lily Fontaine told Niall Doherty: “In terms of writing it, the writing process started maybe five years ago because some of the songs were some of the first songs that I wrote back when I was at university. Where my head was back then and where my head’s at now is so completely different. It’s strange. I do wonder if you can tell which songs are from then and from now.
“When we were writing as a group with the newer songs and recording it, I think we were quite intimidated by the idea of doing a full-length album. It was a bit of pressure and I wouldn’t say that the songs came together easily, especially because we all had different ideas about what we wanted and we were all a bit all over the place with where we were living so it was kind of stressful, but that made it just more of a proud thing to create.”
