After two years of only releasing a few singles, one of my favorite singers, Rex Orange County, has released his newest album, The Alexander Technique.
I first discovered Alexander O’ Connor, also known as Rex Orange County, when I was in the seventh grade. After listening to some songs from Bcos U Will Never B Free, I found a love for his relatable and vulnerable music. Now seven years later, I still feel the same.
His music has been inspired by jazz, hip-hop, and soul, culminating as a complex blend of sounds within his albums. I love how his music feels uniquely his own by evoking a visceral feeling in listeners, whether he has lots of background music or minimal sound despite vocals. His music is distinctly his own because of how he sings about the content within his songs. His lyrics express his struggles and confrontations with love, relationships, and change; and his newest album follows a similar path. However, I would argue that The Alexander Technique is the most raw and vulnerable album he has put out because it is both a combination and release of many tumultuous events from his life and career.
Let’s backtrack though. Throughout his music career O’Connor has put out six albums, and I personally would rank them as follows:
- Apricot Princess (2017)
- The Alexander Technique (2024)
- Pony (2019)
- WHO CARES? (2022)
- Bcos U Will Never B Free (2016)
- Live at Radio City Music Hall (2020)
The deciding factor in their ranking is the structure of the music and the content present within the album. They all explore similar themes, however, they differ in the confidence he has in himself and the relationships about which he sings.
The Alexander Technique has the advantage of being the latest album, and as a result contains his knowledge and acceptance of things that have happened over his life. The songs are vulnerable and reflect how much he has grown throughout his career. Although I’m not going to focus on it, I think it would be a disservice to not explain why Apricot Princess remains my favorite. My reasons are: “Apricot Princess”, “Television/ So Far So Good”, “Nothing”, “Sycamore Girl”, “Untitled”, “4 Seasons”, “Waiting Room”, “Rain Man”, “Never Enough”, and “Happiness.” I love every single song on the album and they all remind me of autumn. Although that’s the only leverage it has, as much as I love everything about his newest album, it doesn’t have a distinct memory connected to it. However, after listening nonstop to The Alexander Technique since its release on Sep. 6, I have developed some favorite songs and strong opinions. Here are my top six songs off the album.
“Alexander”
In many of his songs across multiple albums he has succeeded in creating humorous and relatable connections. “Alexander”, the opening song of the album, constructs a conversation between him and his doctor. Throughout the song he describes the environment of the doctor’s office and how distant the doctor feels from him, resulting in a disconnect of understanding. O’Connor, however, comes around and acknowledges his pain and the ways he was previously trying to ignore it: “I guess I just didn’t want to hear what I didn’t want to hear.” He apologizes to his doctor and within his reflection, confronts something he previously was unable to. It’s also relatable because I think – or at least I find myself– not wanting to confront something that could be worsening a problem I’m already facing.
“The Table”
“The Table” taps into another common practice of mine, which is imagining what is going on with people I never meet and the origins of things I’ll never know. The entire song is him looking at a table and thinking about where it came from, the people who had it, and the tree it came from. He reflects upon what he sees: “strangers constantly/ we have so much in common/ and yet not enough for us to speak.” As someone who walks around a college campus frequently, these lyrics hit home with me because I’m curious as to what everyone is doing and where they’re going. Knowing that not everyone has the same schedule, classes, or hobbies, it’s always interesting and fun to imagine where people could be headed. This song also flips back on the listener because people can “stop and look back at me/ [and] I can’t tell if I’m a stranger.”
“New Years”
“New Years” is another song where he confronts something that everyone who makes a resolution confronts. He talks about his efforts to make a new year’s resolution, but everytime he fails and suddenly he’s halfway through the year. In this song, he goes through the months in a reflective way where he lists every month and how fast they go by. I love this song because I find it hard to try to stick to one thing and want the chance to start over. However, what he accurately captures is that no matter how close you get, life doesn’t become any slower or less overwhelming the closer you get to a restart.
“Guitar Song”
“Guitar Song” is a beautiful song lyrically, but the instrumentals in my eyes almost outshine the lyrics. The guitar is defined and prominent, and creates an ethereal atmosphere. In many of his songs he has long instrumental periods, which fully emphasize his influences. He has listed certain singers or artists in his songs that he finds important, however I think the style of his instrumentals embodies his appreciation for his genre influences. I believe it is due to his experience as a drummer that his songs have a beautiful rhythm that both pairs well with his lyrics and the story he tells.
“2008”
As someone who only played piano and stopped before she was a teenager, I’m not the person who knows enough to break down the instrumental aspects of this song. However, O’Connor and his team had an interview with the Tape Notes Podcast, where they discussed the process of how they created it. They talk about how they stripped down and sampled Sufjan Stevens’s song “Murder and Crime” to create the rhythmic beginning of this song. It sounds futuristic while simultaneously sounding like breathing. It begins the song accompanied by piano, but builds via a domino effect where instruments and drums continue being added in. It’s a dynamic song that alternates between being filled with sound to just his voice, and sometimes only instrumentals. It’s a short song and it’s impressive how it doesn’t feel overwhelming despite everything that’s happening musically.
“Carrera”
This is my favorite song off the album. Everything about this song is perfect to me. From the beat to the lyrics, the entire atmosphere is reflective and familiar. I think what I love about it is how it reminds me of his earlier music, but also shows the growth he’s experienced both in life and in his career. It has an instrumental break at the end, which I feel is one of the strongest parts of his sound.
I love this new album and what it has added to his discography. I always viewed his music as reflective and insightful, but this album feels like a culmination of everything he has gone through since his first album. It’s refreshing to hear a new full album of his music, and I am looking forward to how he continues to let his influences shift his sound.