Pony - Rex Orange County: Review
is a British singer-songwriter who grabbed some attention in 2016 with his self-recorded and self-released debut bcos you will never b free before attracting the attention of Tyler, The Creator and landing two spots on his Flower Boy record in 2017. Around this time Rex Orange Country released his second record, the also self-released Apricot Princess, which was noticeable more popular after his boost in attention on Flower Boy. Now after a string of singles highlighted by the big success of Loving Is Easy Rex is dropping his debut full length album with Sony Records and his first full project since 2017.
Review By Lavender:
There are moments where I really, really enjoy the music of Alex O'Connor, AKA Rex Orange County. His debut album was an internet cult classic and while it spotted some major flaws it was overflowing with personality that had me excited for his future. His two features on Flower Boy excited me as well hoping he would both get more attention for his music as well as climb to more ambitious horizons with his future releases. This is what made Apricot Princess such a huge disappointment as not only did his music not get any more creative, it became actively more lifeless, sounding like nothing but a more expensive version of his first record. Since Apricot Princess I have kept tabs on Rex and I thought he was building up to something really strong.The same year that I thrashed Apricot Princess in a review Rex's single Loving Is Easy also landed at #10 on my Singles Of The Year Chart, and it seemed like this new era was going to get off to a good start with the New House single he dropped earlier this year. Unfortunately I am more confused as ever with Rex, as not only is New House not on this record, it is still far and away the best song I've heard from him this year. Despite much more attention and resources at his disposal Rex has only sounded less interesting and made music with less personality as the years go by.
The singles for this record got off to quite a rough start, but thankfully managed to improve. 10/10 follows a long running issue I've had with Rex's music where he can never really write a complete song. The instrumental is constantly changing and has some genuinely sweet moments but there are plenty of dry passages, and much worse there are a ton of absolutely nauseating lyrical moments. The chipmunked singing is absolutely obnoxious and it makes it hard to take just about anything the song does seriously. Thankfully the singles got better from there starting with Pluto Projector. The track has some fantastic intimate singing from Rex, and while the lyrics aren't great they aren't a distraction either. The song has a pretty sharp progression and almost every passage is worthwhile. Face To Face is another one of the better tracks here with a sugary remixing of some wind chimes that perfectly matches the songs theme. It also has some pretty genuine and fitting lyrical content that makes for a touching moment or two.
Unfortunately those two tracks are almost all of what is likable about this record, aside from some of the songs that make up the back end of the album. It Gets Better is a song I've gone back and forth on and I think I like it. It is a refreshing moment on the record with an instrumental that pairs an ultra slick bassline with some rhythmic snaps for one of the best palates on the record, and Rex simply has to do his thing. It's Not The Same Anymore is a very solid closing song where Rex delivers some hugely improved vocals, but the highlight of the track is really the songwriting with both a tangible musical progression and some great storytelling. The isolated guitar passages are decent but when the warm walls of instrumentation flood into the track it really hits its stride and makes the records last few minutes a real treat.
The rest of the tracks here range from forgettable to flat out terrible starting with Laser Lights. The beginning is rough and very cringey as Rex sounds like a kid who just learned some new swear words and wants to sound edgy, but thankfully it gets better from there. The track never gets better lyrically as it continues to sound like slant rhyming stream of consciousness nonsense, but the instrumental gets a big boost. His willingness to completely drop out the instrumentation and then reintroduce it is consistently excellent and makes the track a lot more tolerable. The other track that isn't awful is Always, with its decent title refrain and boyish singing it doesn't really stand out much. The instrumental is REALLY nothing special and the whole song kind of sounds like nondescript indie pop you'd hear on a Tyler The Creator stan's "Wave Emoji" Spotify playlist.
The really bad songs start popping up in the middle of the record starting with Stressed Out. The song is meant to address the Rex Orange County haters, for some reason. The lyrics are a really hard miss that are at points actually difficult to listen to, plus the stool and guitar instrumental isn't doing much of anything for me. Never Had The Balls is another stratosphere of bad as it sounds like the instrumental from an 80's dance record, or something Robyn would have killed in the late 2000's. The combination gets even worse as the songs melody and synth passages sound just like Spaceman by The Killers, except Rex is genuinely trying to rap over this track, and I really can't stand any of it. Every Way sounds like a leftover track from Apricot Princess. just a very cheap and incredibly corny ballad with some decent vocals but very little that is memorable or worth any praising.
Pony may be the weakest attempt we've heard from Rex Orange County yet, which is a shame coming off a period where he dropped some fantastic singles that could have made this record so much better. Instead we're left with a dreadfully dull final project that clearly left nothing on the cutting room floor and really makes me question if Rex will ever come through with anything really good, or even really noteworthy, ever again. 4/10
For more indie singer-songwriters check out my review of Angel Olsen's All Mirrors here
