SOUNDTRACK: REX ORANGE COUNTY-Tiny Desk Concert #961 (March 18, 2020).
I read about Rex Orange County (the low-key British pop star born Alex O’Connor) in some random article which basically said if you’re over twenty you’ve never heard of him, but if you’re under twenty, you think he’s the greatest thing ever. (My 14 year old son had not heard of him).
I didn’t read anything about his music, but I assumed he was a hip hop performer or the like.
So imagine my surprise when he turned out to be an English dude who sings like Stevie Wonder and (in the Tiny Desk at least) has music that sounds like it comes straight from the 70s.
“Loving Is Easy” features Michael Underwood on flute and Johnny Woodham on flugehorn sounding for all the world like a mid 70s AM hit. Is he really popular with the young kids?
There was a palpable connection between the 21-year-old singer and [the crowd of millennial and Gen Z staffers that gathered early for Rex’s soundcheck] that I don’t see often at this stage in a musician’s career. My guess is that they see themselves in him: introverted and shy, with the audacity to write and sing about his innermost thoughts.
I really feel like this blurb is overselling his openness. I mean, most singer-songwriters bare their souls, so I’m not sure what makes him any different. But the blurb really pushes his honesty
We’re in an age where young people are uninhibited and unafraid to address emotions, simple or complex. In that sense, his latest LP, Pony, is timely. He spoke with NPR and shared that he was incredibly unhealthy mentally throughout the making of the album. But there’s an arch to Pony and by the time we get to the final song, “It’s Not The Same Anymore,” he seems at peace with his new reality.
But what’s so intense about these lyrics?
Loving is easy
You had me fucked up
It used to be so hard to see
Yeah, loving is easy
When everything’s perfect
Please don’t change a single little thing for me
I mean, not much, so let’s not get carried away about how revolutionary he is.
I was instantly surprised by how white his band seems. The band is dressed all in white and they are a remarkably pale bunch. Drummer Jim Reed has the bright red cheeks of the overheated. And Michael, Johnny and lead guitarist Joe Arksey are all blond and very pale.
Between songs, he seems like he has never been in front of an audience before with the awkward way he introduces these songs.
Up next is “Pluto Projector” in which Rex switches to guitar and Underwood switches to piano. There’s a moment in the middle when bassist Darryl Dodoo plays a slap note. It’s really the only notable bass in the show. Woodham plays a muted trumpet solo which is followed by a guitar solo from Joe Arksey that I was sure was bass, but it’s just a weirdly muffled guitar sound.
For “Always” Rex moves back to piano and he sounds even more like Stevie Wonder. This song features sax and a non-muted trumpet. There’s some great horn melodies in this song and I like the way he plays some piano parts in the middle.
There’s this awkward introduction. Okay I only have one more now, and then I’m gonna go… Let’s play the song that’s called “Sunflower” now.
“Sunflower” is “older,” meaning it dates all the way back to 2017. He’s back on guitar with a nice echo. The beginning of the song is guitar and flugelhorn. Then in the middle, the song picks up the tempo and becomes the catchiest thing all show. I’m not that keen on the rhyming/talking middle part–it seems oddly forced, but that’s okay. There’s a jamming section at the end with a flugehorn solo followed by a sax solo
Rex did not blow me away, but I was pleasantly surprised by his sound and that kids actually like it..
[READ: February 21, 2019] The Dam Keeper Book 3
Kondo and Tsutsumi have both worked at Pixar, which may explain why this graphic novel looks unlike anything I have ever seen before. I have (after reading their bios) learned that this was also a short film. I’m only a little disappointed to learn that because it means the pictures are (I assume) stills from the film. It still looks cool and remarkable, but it makes it a bit less eye-popping that this unusual style wasn’t made for a book.
For part three, the final part, our heroes, Pig, Fox and Hippo are trying to get back home to save Sunrise Valley.
This third part is a lot of travel, very little dialogue and, honestly some fairly confusing action.
Pig has been given a plant by the moles and he hopes to use it to find the smoke monster. Fox and Hippo say the heck with that and choose to head home.
Fox and Hippo are on Van’s ship. They are brought inside to meet Van’s children. The room is full of dozens of children of all different species. As hippo puts it:
Erm.. these are your kids? But they don’t look like you or Van how is this possible?
Van;s wife says that all of the children were abandoned for being different so Van took them in. (more…)
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