Rex Orange County - The Alexander Technique [2LP White]

The Alexander Technique finds Rex Orange County trading big gestures for something softer and more searching. This indie-exclusive pressing spreads it across two white LPs in a gatefold jacket.

Released in 2024 on RCA, the fifth album from the English singer-songwriter Alex O'Connor follows Who Cares? and turns inward, sixteen songs about doubt, love and figuring out how to be okay. He produced it largely himself alongside Teo Halm and Jim Reed, tracking at studios including Abbey Road, where string sections were recorded for several songs.

Those strings carry plenty of the emotional weight. "Alexander" opens the record at the piano with disarming candour, "Guitar Song" pairs warm acoustic picking with lush orchestration, and "The Table" keeps things brief and wistful. Later on, "Look Me In The Eyes" brings in James Blake as co-writer, co-producer and featured voice, a natural pairing given both artists' taste for hushed, close-miked confession. Elsewhere, synths and looser grooves lighten the mood whenever it threatens to get heavy.

O'Connor plays much of the record himself, moving between piano, guitar, bass and synthesizer, which gives the album a homemade intimacy even when the arrangements swell.

It is a quietly brave record from a songwriter working things out in real time, and the white vinyl suits its gentle, sunlit palette.