It’s been a long while for fans of singer-songwriter Rex Orange County (real name Alexander James O’Connor), with them having to wait over two years for any new material. His last album was 2019’s Pony, which was supposed to be followed up in 2021 by a release titled Who Cares?. For unknown reasons, this was delayed, but signs of hope seem to be returning, with some rather mysterious promotion acts on O’Connor’s behalf.
It started a couple of weeks back on January 1st when O’Connor returned to Twitter, after having been absent for over 8 months. He replied to a fan’s tweet asking about the release of the new album. In it he simply said “oops … sorry for delay … do you still wan[n]a hear it?“.
oops !… sorry for delay… do you still wana hear it ? https://t.co/oAUocYWIsV
— rex orange county (@rexorangecounty) January 1, 2022
Ramping the mystery up even more (as well as the generous fan service), last week saw fans receiving postcards in the mail with a phone number, the voicemail of which said “I know it isn’t easy, and you may have had enough. But I promise that it’s worth it, if you try and keep it up“. Following this was a snippet of a new, as-of-yet unreleased song.
Here’s what happens when u call pic.twitter.com/rw7cETbeUv — E (@mendescollector) January 13, 2022
And yesterday he went to TikTok to post a snippet of what appears to be the same song from the voicemail, with the video showing him lip-syncing to the lyrics. The track was captioned “Keep It Up” and gives fans hope of an upcoming single soon to come from the artist.
@rexKEEP IT UP♬ original sound – rex orange county
NME quotes the lyrics as “Every time I open my mouth, I have regrets in my mind. Every time, and no one seems to figure me out. I guess it’s stress. It’s making me feel so depressed. Most my life I felt so tired, but every now and then when I try I say keep it up and go on, you’re only holding out for what you want. No longer owe to strangers. It’s enough. It’s enough.“
Despite the lack of new material, O’Connor did find time to release a live album back in 2020, entitled Live at Radio City Music Hall. The singer-songwriter grew up in Surrey, and first rose to fame after featuring on famed US rapper Tyler, the Creator’s 2017 album Flower Boy. Like many new artists these days, he started out making music as a teenager, producing his own songs with Apple’s Logic software and releasing a debut album on SoundCloud/Bandcamp back in 2015, which you can listen to here. It caught the attention of Tyler, the Creator and English musician Two Inch Punch, and the rest is history.
With only three studio albums to his name, fans can be pleased to hear something new is finally close to surfacing. Otherwise, we’ll just have to wait and see what’s coming next from this elusive artist, who seems ready-in-waiting for a comeback any time now.
