Inside Rex Orange County's Most Ambitious Album Yet, And Why It Feels Like “Some Ending”

“My early albums all led to that in my mind,” says the English artist known as Rex Orange County, speaking of his intimate yet musically wild upcoming album. “That's exactly what I wanted to do.”

Aptly titled Alexander's techniquereleased on September 6th on RCA, the album is indeed a seminal work. Rex (born Alexander O'Connor) began the project in 2020, around the same time he was making his third album. Who cares?, on which he worked almost exclusively with Dutch musician and songwriter Benny Sings.

For Alexanderthe 26-year-old artist took a completely different approach. Recruiting his “two best friends”, Jim Reed and Teo Halm, Rex welcomed more collaborators than ever – particularly musicians such as bassist Pino Palladino, mainstays Cory Henry, Finn Carter and Reuben James and guitarist Henry Webb-Jenkins. “Especially those first couple of albums I really liked, “Please don't touch it, I know how it must be,” says Rex. “That was the first time I had different people's ideas – and a lot more songs.”

Finally, he understood Who cares not only did it have to be released first, but this Alexander's technique deserved much more time, saying it “was more ambitious overall”. As a result, the artist has emerged with his biggest album to date, with a set list of 16 songs compared to his usual 10. “I've never done this before,” he says of the “intense” experience – describing what he heard like a deep emotional cleanse. “That's why it is the technique.”

“I had this weird thing for the first three years of my career where every song that came out was every song I'd ever written,” he continues. “I had no reason to create one that wouldn't [make it]. I thought it would just confuse me. Which, I'll admit, it does. But [this album] it has evolved so much in such a long time. The deeper you dig, the more you find.”

Since releasing his critically acclaimed debut album, Apricot Princess, in 2017 – which established Rex Orange County as a brutally honest songwriter and skilled musician – his formulaic approach to album-making worked just fine. The project of 2019 Pony debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and placed him at the forefront of a generation that combined indie alternative pop with raw writing.

And while Who cares? (which debuted at No. 5) has made bigger pop changes to support his more upbeat lyricism, Rex assures that Alexander's technique it is where his most emotional writing from that time period ended up. (In the fall of 2022, the artist pleaded not guilty to six counts of sexual assault; that December, all charges were dropped.) “I felt like this album was maybe more of a diary entry—what I was going into and a level of emotional depth,” he says. .

Elsewhere, there's a personal favorite, “Guitar Song,” which was the first track he did with Reed and Halm. (“The way it sounds is pretty much the way it sounded the day we made it in 2021 – it's free and the ending is mental,” he says). He calls “Look Me In the Eyes,” on which he collaborated with James Blake, “the most heartbreaking song I've ever heard.” And on the standout 'Therapy', she talks about entering the industry at 17 and getting into therapy at 22 – “and no, I don't regret a thing,” she sings. “I went up, I fell down, and then I found peace.”

Despite its long running time, at just over 50 minutes, Alexander it's a masterclass in being laconic, with opening track 'Alexander' – the first song Rex wrote for this album – being the most perfect example. In the nearly five-minute song, Rex sings over the piano, as if filling time between songs in an intimate, dimly lit jazz bar. (Stevie Wonder is his favorite.)

“It was written pretty quickly, and that's not always the case for me,” he says of the song, which tells the true story of a frustrating doctor's visit in 2019. While there, he complained that pain kept coming back, only to be told it was more likely stress and anger and a troubled mind that made him ache. “In a weird way, I feel like maybe he was right/Maybe I'm using the pain in my back to distract from the pain of life/I feel everything on the outside when it's really right inside,” Rex sings.

“I don't want a whole album of five-minute stories that I speak on piano, but I want each song to be as concise and thoughtful as possible,” he says. “So I was preparing for a big project.”

Ultimately, “Alexander” helped set the tone for the entire album, right up to its double title track. While there is an Alexander technique – known to help with inner balance, both mentally and physically, as the focus of the practice is posture – Rex says that writing this album was what ultimately made him stronger in end. “As much as I still really have a terrible attitude, he was more honest – that's my real Alexander Technique,” he says. “I'm me, not Rex Orange County.”

He plans to translate that shift into his upcoming tour, calling it (like the album) his most ambitious gig to date. He's been rehearsing since June, sharing that “2008” — a strikingly upbeat song with charming falsetto harmonies — was especially fun to play live, while “New Years” came the most naturally. He's also teasing plans to switch it up at every gig – and while that could mean anything from a different set list to a surprise song à la Taylor Swift, he's keeping most of the details private for now.

The trek will hit select theaters in cities like Chicago, Toronto, New York, Los Angeles and London for mini-residencies – likely a one-off for this album, he says – allowing for a more involved set that will be “intensely connected with one of the visual locations' seen in his music videos. “The stage connects to where I wanted to take you as a listener,” he says. “[To a] more relaxing state,”

Considering how much of an artistic statement Alexander's technique That is, Rex admits that it feels “strangely” like an ending. “You get a different perspective,” he says, who is in his 20s and has worked in the industry for nearly a decade. “It's not the end of the era, but I definitely feel a different level of awareness and maturity, maybe,” he says. “I still love music and I want to keep making music – and I want to keep changing it. That's the most important thing for me.”

Seemingly tied for first place, however, is his new tendency to prioritize himself. As he sings, succinctly as ever, on “Therapy”: “I recharged – and I'm back.”