7.5/10
Favorite Track: "Never Enough" Least Favorite Track: "Waiting Room"
Mixing elements of jazz, rock, and hip hop, Rex Orange County’s second studio Album ; Apricot Princess, is a huge improvement on all fronts. From the vocals ,to the instrumentals, to the overall blend of more captivating ideas, Rex Orange County sounds like a completely new and more polished version of himself on Apricot Princess opposed to his previous record. Lyrically this whole record is just asking to be sung. Rex’s unique style of mixing rapping, singing and sometimes simply talking, is infectious and adds so much color and flavor to Apricot Princess. In addition their is much more attention to detail in terms of this projects instrumentals, especially the drums. Some of ways Rex conducts the percussion on this record are amazing. Take for example the intro to
Television/ So Far So Good, which features these hard hitting floor Tom and base drums patterns that sounds like something out of a marching band. This track also features a lethal, distorted, electric guitar riff and some more amazing instrumentals. Untitled gives us an emotional ballad at the midway point of the record through a medium of a beautiful, delicate, almost psychedelic but still simple guitar riff and some soft but Profound lyrics. The hook (or what seemed like it to me), on this track is reflective but equally somber. “I don’t mind if you hate me, cause baby if I were you, I would probably hate me to”. His sheer sense of reflective, vulnerability is all left out there lyrically on this track. The last three tracks on this record are all equally as fantastic and give this record the driving finish that it truly needed. Rain Man is a beautiful jazz solo instrumental track. The fact that it is merely forty four seconds long , testifies to the pure melodic statement of its greatness ; in other words, it’s less than a minute long but it’s still fantastic. It flows into the next track wonderfully. Never Enough is hard hitting rock song with some flying guitars, a catchy drum beat, and an EXPLOSIVE hook with Rex talking about “losing the ones you love” and “not knowing how to feel”. It mixes emotional lyrics with powerful instrumentals beautifully. The closing track is another great emotional ballad on this record. Happiness is an absolutely gorgeous, emotional love letter to what seems like Rex’s girlfriend (a topic on much of this record). He portrays his worries about his relationship and his inner conflict and anxiety about “getting it wrong” or when he questions “will you still love me when, nobody wants me around”. It’s yet another moment off this record where he shows his pure vulnerability in a beautiful and artistic way. Apricot Princess continues to be emotional, catchy, and purely enjoyable, track after track after track. This record makes me extremely excited to continue following Rex Orange County’s discography in the future and even more excited for whatever his next project will be.