Rex Orange County recently debuted his sophomore album titled ”Pony” at the end of October. the album is made up of ten tracks, three of which were released as singles before this album was fully released. Rex is a 21 year old artist from England who has become increasingly popular within the last two years, when singles of his unique indie-pop debuted and became popular amongst students. On Spotify today, he has almost 9 millions monthly listeners—one of which is unapologetically me.
Rex’s music is different in comparison to what you’d hear on the radio—it is mostly upbeat, but the lyrics share personal stories given to us from Rex himself. In this album particularly, he has some songs in which he talks about anxiety and being naive when he was younger with believing in the good in the world. In his song 10/10, he discusses how he feels like he hasn’t had his life together—something many of us struggle with, especially as college students. He takes a look back in this song to notice his childhood friendships and what went wrong, and remembering where he grew up to consider what sort of effect it had on defining who he would be as an adult. He shares his struggle with wanting to be better, to be a perfect 10/10, but he instead feels like a 5/10, like he’s not living up to his full potential. The great part about Rex Orange County and this song in particular as well is how upbeat it is, while also still talking about real issues that we all face, that normally we wouldn’t hear about in mainstream music. I know that I like to listen to music with substance that I feel a connection to, but I don’t always want to listen to sad, depressing melodies. I appreciate Rex’s work not only for his talent in being able to gracefully succeed in sharing his story, but also doing it in a way that sets him aside from the norm.
His songs are not all full of sad lyrics with a deeper meaning. Another song on this album, Getting Better is dedicated to his four year long relationship with his girlfriend. In this song, he admires the good she has done for the world and what a mark she has left. He sings about how much time has passed in their relationship, yet nothing feels different. I particularly like the beat to this song, as it is so unique.
Pony was so recently released and came with the announcement of a world tour, many of the shows are already sold out. On February 3rd and 4th of 2020, he will be playing the House of Blues in Boston—both dates have already sold out. As he’s still rising in fame and popularity, many scalpers grabbed his tickets for a low price immediately after them being announced and have now raised the prices trying to resell them. With that said, I’m sure you can still get your hands on a ticket but I can’t guarantee they won’t be ridiculously high priced. What I will say is that I’m sure whatever amount would be worth it, as Rex is a very talented artist who will definitely be gaining more fame and recognition in the near future.