Pony: Sterilisation of Bedroom Pop or an Intentional Shift in Creative Direction?
3 stars
There are lots of bedroom pop artists breaking into the mainstream these days (Clairo, Gus Dapperton, Boy Pablo, Omar Apollo, etc.), but the undisputed king is Rex Orange County. After featuring on Tyler, the Creator’s Flower Boy, Rex leapt from 500 followers on SoundCloud to being one of the biggest new names in the music industry. Since then we’ve been waiting eagerly for his third album.
Two years in the spotlight appears to have left Rex a little shell shocked. Much of the focus of Pony is his struggle in new environments and being separated from those he loves. While this shift has certainly left him with some good material to write about, it seems as though it’s also caused a rift in his style. The “hazy Sunday morning” charm of his older material has been entirely abandoned. I hesitate to say this is intentional as particular tracks on Pony are clearly trying to capture the cushy/youthful energy of bedroom pop – “10/10”, “Never Had The Balls” and “Face To Face”. All those songs fuckin’ slap there’s no denying, but they’re missing a soul. Possibly the style didn’t hold its colours through the wash of label and executive influence. Even worse, songs like “Always” and “Stressed Out” are void of originality and drone on in places.
While the bedroom pop themes suffer, Rex’s larger sounding orchestral-infused tracks are doing him wonders. The power supplied by RCA records has granted him access to expand the amount he uses large numbers of instruments. The utilisation of weightier instrumentation appears across the album and is more prominent in tracks like “Pluto Projector” and “Laser Lights”. Rex hits his stride with these grandiose compositions in “It Gets Better”, where the indie and operatic pop genre influences of the album come together beautifully. There is certainly a comparison to be drawn to operatic/baroque pop artist Rufus Wainwright, with Rex being the modern-day version.
Rex’s strong storytelling is his main play here, but it leaves a desire for more creative wordplay. There are a few great tongue-in-cheek lines that catch you off guard – “Sometimes you gotta cut a bitch out”. Also a few get you in the feels – “I open up when shit gets built up this high/ She makes it easy to cry”.
The album displays many of Rex’s strongest traits, unfortunately just not the best instances. Track-by-track the album lacks consistency as it fails to walk the tightrope of jolly and depressed. Hopefully Rex’s next project can be pointed in a clearer direction.
