Alex O’Connor, better known as Rex Orange County, has built a career off of uniting indie and pop listeners in a refreshed synth sound. Up until now, successful so far, the artist has curated such a sound that perpetuates the feeling of a sort of gloomy-hope for listeners—relatable at times but getting old, very fast. 

His new album, WHO CARES? fails to impress me after multiple wishful listens that maybe it’s just one of those releases that grows on you. To better understand why this album was a failure, it’s important to acknowledge the issue with singers straying too far from their sound, without falling between the fine line of growing as an artist and exploring new styles versus the aforementioned.

“KEEP IT UP,” while an excellent first track choice that sets the tone for the album, is accompanied by orchestra-like instrumentals that drown out O’Connor’s vocals in the chorus. While there was much room for this style of music to be a smash hit with the turnaround of spring, notably being a composition of sounds I haven’t really heard, it just simply wasn’t done well over the course of this album or in this context.

Another aspect I found missing from this track list was a scream-worthy lineup of features from other artists—well, except for “OPEN A WINDOW (feat. Tyler, The Creator).” Coming off a high from his very successful album, Call Me If You Get Lost, I expected something much more impactful from Tyler on this track. While CMIYGL aligns with the energy of WHO CARES?, this feature fell flat, lacking Tyler’s usual packed punch and follow-through delivery of his vocal range and lyrics. This came especially as a surprise after the unimaginable and perpetual success of Rex Orange County’s features on two tracks on Tyler’s staple album, Flower Boy. “Foreword (feat. Rex Orange County)” and, especially, “Boredom (feat. Rex Orange County and Anna of the North)” are both sustainable tracks that I still consider to be forefronts of my playlists to this day.

My personal candidate for the best-written song on WHO CARES? would have to be “WORTH IT.” While the verses were articulated in a relatable, gut-punching arrangement, the rest of the song’s aspects are so bad they almost ruin the few-and-far-between good parts. The intro is too long, and the background—the-king-is-walking-to-his-thrown-style reed instrument and trumpets—honestly makes me cringe.

“ONE IN A MILLION” is a lazily written love ballad. Ridden with cliches, not to even mention the title, this song grosses me out due to the utter lack of creativity; really, it’s a total slap in the face to fans who have spent years hanging onto every word of the artist’s past love songs, especially from Pony, Rex Orange County’s most recent album up until now, and his most notable.

The transition from Pony, an album oozing with raw emotion, conveyed perfectly into tracks that are “a set of casual, Frank Ocean-indebted bedroom soul that’s often stunning in its clarity” (Apple Music).

The opening, summer-insinuating, Peter Tosh-like instrumentals had me excited for “THE SHADE.” While there was an extreme amount of potential for this song, once again O’Connor disappoints in missing the mark with his accompanied lyricism. While this song is nowhere near extraordinary in my eyes, I can see it becoming a popular addition to upcoming playlists for the warmer weather.

Rex Orange County has always been a solemn artist, a very sad dude, but WHO CARES? infringes upon whiny. This album was nothing special, but I will say O’Connor continues to deserve recognition for his hits of the past and hopefully revisits his old sound on future projects.