Hey everyone! Welcome to this weeks blogs post. This week we will be talking about the album Pony by Rex Orange County that was released in October of 2019. 

Before getting into the album, let’s talk about the artist first. After being raised and growing up in Grayshott, England, Alex O’Connor made quite a name for himself after releasing music as Rex Orange County. He released his first self-produced album in 2015, “bcos u will never be free.” He continued to build his viral fame in 2017 after releasing his sophomore album “Apricot Princess” This album took a spot on the Billboard charts. His next album after that is Pony, and he just released his fourth album this past month, “Who Cares?” He grew up singing in school choir and developed a love of pop music. He draws a lot of his inspiration for his music from artists such as Queen, Stevie Wonder, Green Day, and Weezer. After he started attending school at the BRIT School in London, he started to expand his music skills and start writing songs and started presenting himself as Rex Orange County, the O.C. being from O’Connor. Since the release of his first album, he has gained a huge following and people love his style of music. His most recent album was a huge hit.

Now let’s talk about Pony

This 10 track album became a huge hit and people still listen to it and the songs still go viral tik tok occasionally. Here is the trackless before we get started. 

This album had a lot of positive reviews given the fact that people really like his style of music. One article by Hannah Mylrea on NME.com talks all about this album and all the good things about it. In the headline of this article she states that the album represents “eclecticism and hope delivered with dazzling charm.” She says that the 21 year old singer is able to represent his thoughts and struggles into “a jubilant collection of hope-laced tunes.” She goes into detail about how this album is mainly about the struggles and hardships that he faced during the time he toured with Frank Ocean and was actually performing his music and getting that experience. “The Low-key” Stressed Out is a song in where he references his experiences in life with friendships and fake friends. She talks about how most of the songs in the beginning of the track-list are about those darker times and specific aspects of his life that were effected then and how well he puts that into his lyrics. She then talks about how towards the second alf of the album, his songs are more upbeat in sound and have more positive lyrics. To wrap up her article and thoughts about the album, she states ” It may be miserable outside, and the world’s going to shit, but try listening to ‘Pony’ and not feeling a little bit more optimistic about the future.” This album is the perfect soundtrack for a gloomy day. 

Now for my personal opinion, I love this album! It came out during my freshman year of college when I was also going through some hard times so it was perfect timing. I would listen to it all the time and the upbeat tunes of it would always lighten my day and put me in a good mood. His music has a quirky, fun tone to it and it is always something I play either on a rainy day to cheer me up or on a sunny day to fit the mood. I would definitely check out this album if you haven’t already! Here are links to listen to it! 

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/pony/1480410681

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/5CNckxfLf4TCoMOoxgAU8l?si=Lxu-lVWPSry6w7YRuIFurw

Thanks for reading this weeks post, see you next week!