The Alexander Technique

“It\'s the most honest and it\'s the most vulnerable and it\'s what I\'ve wanted to make for the longest time,” Alex O\'Connor tells Apple Music\'s Matt Wilkinson. “So, having finished that and sending it out to the world now, it\'s kind of a strange feeling.” *The Alexander Technique*, O\'Connor’s fifth album as Rex Orange County, finds him turning inward, examining the person he is and the way he wants to live in the world. On the sweet, experimental pop lullaby “2008,” Rex goes back to a simpler time, wishing he could clear his head like he did as a child. “Free your mind and treat it kindly/Ten years old, I was unbothered/Spent my hours in the garden/I was all right.” Many of the album’s themes are introduced on album opener “Alexander,” a beautiful piano ballad that finds Rex as naked and raw as ever. “I’ve had back pain for most of my life,” he sings with such clarity that you can practically hear fingers hitting the piano keys beneath his voice. Rex, at his doctor’s urging, begins to explore the mental effects that play a role in physical pain. He sings from the doctor’s point of view when he adds: “He said ease up on stress/You don’t help yourself much/It’s too intense for you to take/You’ll only tense up.” It was this clarifying moment that led O’Connor to create *The Alexander Technique*. “It\'s about looking at yourself and trying to be present,” he says. “It’s not about doing the most or expecting things to be fantastic. It\'s mostly about trying to find peace and be well physically and mentally.”

Rex Orange County's first album since 2022 finds the singer-songwriter making confused, oft-uninspired work that leaves the listener with more questions than answers.