JR Rex Orange Country Review

Alex O’Connor, otherwise known as Rex Orange County, is an extremely talented and gifted man from England who writes indie alternative music. His music is for those who are willing to really listen to the musicianship of a song rather than the sound all together. The language includes a lot of cuss words, as said by my mother who heard Rex’s music for the first time: “This isn’t music for the sensitive or anyone who doesn’t like profanity.”
A lot of his lyrics are very meaningful and give a message in terms of what has been going on in his life or his friends’ lives. Rex plays multiple instruments including, but not limited to, bass, guitar, piano, and drums. For this album Rex played a lot of them but he plays alongside a band during his live performances including a bassist, drummer, guitarist, saxophone player, and trumpet player. In live performances he can be seen playing keys or guitar.
Rex has written a lot of singles and has released three full size albums thus far, “Bcos You Will Never B Free”, “Apricot Princess”, and his latest release “Pony”. This album was released on October 25, 2019, and includes ten songs\; ‘10/10’, ‘Always, Laser Lights’, ‘Face To Face’, ‘Stressed Out’, ‘Never Had the Balls’, ‘Pluto projector’, ‘Every Way, It Gets Better’, and ‘It’s Not the Same Anymore’. These ten songs are good examples of the type of music Rex makes, some are shorter, more dialogue based pieces that set up the following song with the rest of his band playing somber melodies behind him. These songs are very appropriate and they are something he does with all his albums, very well. All the other songs have the same tone\; very happy light feelings with slightly sad lyrics, but still makes you bop your head to the music. All of the music has light synth melodies and chord patterns that are subtle but for those who pay attention to detail, can hear and really appreciate the musicianship of.
I couldn’t help but to also fall in love with this album. I’ve been a musical person all my life and in further analysis of the album and its technicalities, it just made me enjoy it more. Rex is nothing short of a musical genius. He composed all of the parts for every instrument in this album. This is just more reason for me to like the music, but it is not for everyone, some people don’t appreciate the language used or just plain aren’t fans of this type of music, so that keeps it from being a five out of five.
I also took the time to analyze how Rex made one of his masterpieces. He sings in a baritone range and sings most of his music in the same key, Eb major (or C minor). With both keys, Rex uses a lot of sevenths and ninths in his piano parts. For example, my favorite Rex Orange County song, ‘Loving is Easy’. This song starts out with an Eb9/G, which is already very unique. It is in Eb major (C minor), so starting out with the ninth of a major creates an almost immediate floaty feeling to the song. This chord is followed by an Fm9, again using the seventh and ninth notes of the scale to create a little bit of tension, to be resolved by the F in the following Gm7 chord. The final resolution of the tension created by the initial chord comes from a Bb13 which creates its own sense of tension to be shortly resolved by the major ninth in the start of the four chord pattern, our Eb9. The bass note for the last chord to the first chord of the progression is a major fifth, which gives a very satisfying and pleasing sound.
I give this album a four and a half out of five spartan heads, the musicianship of Rex and his band is very impressive and fun to listen to.