I really want to like Rex Orange County. I did when I was seventeen; his early work was the perfect soundtrack to navigating the awkward explorations of Sixth Form, be it world- crushing crushes, newfound anxiety or generally being in ones ‘feels’. He fit perfectly in the online indie resurgence of the late 2010s, with contemporaries like Clairo, Boy Pablo and Gus Dapperton being mainstays of the indie Spotify playlists of 2017. Personally, Clairo is the only artist in that group who remains in my rotation, thanks to her 2021 album Sling. She did what every artist must to remain relevant and engaging, evolving from her endearing lo-fi endeavours, like Pretty Girl and Flaming Hot Cheetos, to timelessly warm ballads like Blouse and Harbor. It is this feat that now 23-year-old Alex O’Connor must perform to remain an indie headliner in 2022. Did he achieve this with WHO CARES?
Admittedly, there is no bad Rex Orange County album. His discography varies between lushly arranged and expertly performed love songs, satisfyingly simple lo-fi tunes and inoffensively boring tunes. Bcos U Will Never B Free is the quintessential sad-teenager-in-his-bedroom album, and Apricot Princess showed he could elevate his sound to an orchestral level. His now-iconic run of singles, including Sunflower, Best Friend and Loving is Easy elevated Rex Orange County to genuinely world-famous status. This newfound fame, added to by his contributions to Tyler, the Creator’s Flower Boy, resulted in his first major label offering, Pony, the point at which I exited the fanbase. It seemed a newfound budget and a desperate need to appeal had rendered his third album an entry into the now-growing catalogue of juvenile indie-pop clogging up the streaming age.
"One really cannot falter the technical aspects of WHO CARES? It sounds pristine"
I was ready to re-enter the Rex Orange County fanbase prior to the WHO CARES?’ release. The singles were consistently impressive, with KEEP IT UP and AMAZING displaying the conceptual cohesion of an expert producer; that being the practically Midas touch of Benny Sings. The Dutch super-producer’s involvement gave me a newfound sense of hope, given his mastery of well-recorded groovy piano tunes. Albeit, a good portion of his discography is millennial-coffee-shop-friendly, his 2021 album, aptly titled Music, showcased his collaborative skills and signature silky sound. With his involvement, how could WHO CARES? be anything but a perfect storm for Rex’s progression as an artist? After all, the duo teamed up previously on Loving is Easy, indisputably one of O’Connor’s best songs and a fan favourite. The cute pianos and upbeat drums carry across from the singles into the entire album, coupled with the occasional string section and perfectly recorded vocals. One really cannot falter the technical aspects of WHO CARES?. It sounds pristine.
The album's opening tracks welcome the listener into breezy instrumentals and an almost annoyingly joyful Rex Orange County. KEEP IT UP is a perfect opener, displaying all the elements that could have made the album great; a tight arrangement, focused themes and O’Connor’s signature stringy singsong. OPEN A WINDOW proves that the Rex and Benny coupling works, with lush strings and an obtusely cute bass tone, which soundtracks a passable verse from Tyler, the Creator. By the end of AMAZING, WHO CARES? appears to have found the all-new refined sound Rex Orange County needed. The stage is set for the musically rich and lyrically deep album cuts that, unfortunately, never come. ONE IN A MILLION, IF YOU WANT IT and 7AM sound even more like songs a juvenile 16-year-old could muster up than the music Alex O’Connor actually made at age 16, which is comparatively commendable.
The album picks up with THE SHADE, where Rex sings endearingly about"painting all the walls just to see if you liked the shade", along with a genuinely cute and well performed chorus. It’s numbers like these, the well-conceived tunes of the tracklist, that make the shortcomings of WHO CARES? even more potent and noticeable, as O’Connor proves he can succeed in this sound-world, but only chooses to half the time. MAKING TIME sounds like an adult Rex Orange County channelling the cute jazzy sounds of his teenage discography that first popularised his act; untitled and Japan achieve this too. Yet, just as the album appears to show promise, WHO CARES? delivers its most homeware-advert-friendly songs as title track 'WHO CARES'? conjures images of paid actors dancing around a freshly sanitised retail store. If Rex had released an EP with the first four songs of the album and MAKING TIME, WHO CARES? could have been the perfect steppingstone between Pony and a more ambitiously successful album, but instead the album comes across as intermittently annoying and offensively bland.
"He manages to simultaneously stay in his lane as a sad indie-boy crooner, whilst also writing upbeat pop tunes with no substance behind their melancholy"
In an charmingly grateful Instagram post, Rex admitted he "went out to Amsterdam without plans to make an album", a sentiment that perfectly describes WHO CARES? The project feels underbaked, littered with promising productions and truly catchy melodies, but with no memorable message or really any clear themes at all. Again, not an inherently bad quality - music can be simple and fun! There is that sense of fun to the songs, and it's clear that O’Connor enjoyed making the album, but combine this simplicity with his signature melancholy, the project often comes across as whiny, (made unavoidable by O’Connor's often nasally tone). For example, on standout single Amazing, he proclaims, "who’s gonna save me now", without sharing what he seeks refuge from. On Apricot Princess, fans knew about his girlfriend, they knew her name and what she looked like, and so songs like Sycamore Girl, a love-drenched duet between O’Connor and his now ex-girlfriend and musician Thea, fizz with the effervescence of lived experience.
With their split in November 2020, a portion of his fanbase - a group I’m not massively proud to be a part of - were hoping for an indulgently grand breakup album, laced with heart-breaking jazzy chords and an emotional Rex, a la Pluto Projector. This may be why I find WHO CARES? so confusing as a progression for O’Connor as an artist. He manages to simultaneously stay in his lane as a sad indie-boy crooner, whilst also writing upbeat pop tunes with no substance behind their melancholy. The somewhat lost Rex Orange County fan that lives within me, and probably a good portion of the A-Level class of 2020, hopes that WHO CARES? is the fun Amsterdam-fuelled side of a half-finished double album exploring O’Connor’s hopefully-extant heartbreak, set to release in 2023. The most successful artistic endeavour across the project is probably the title - that being my main takeaway after listening: WHO CARES?
Ewan Samms
Featured image courtesy of Rex Orange County via Facebook. In-article videos courtesy of Rex Orange County via YouTube.
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