Rex Orange County built his name making music alone, and his new album is the sound of him letting people in. Dream Fatigue, out now, brings Turnstile’s Brendan Yates, Daniel Caesar, Dev Hynes, Mustafa and Taylor Skye of Jockstrap into his world, with the Yates-directed “Elvis” video arriving Monday.

LISTEN: rexorangecounty.ffm.to/Dream-Fatigue

Rex Orange County releases his new album Dream Fatigue. The record is co-executive produced by Mustafa and Dylan Wiggins (Rosalía, Justin Bieber), and features contributions from Turnstile’s Brendan Yates, Dev Hynes, Daniel Caesar, Mustafa, dexter in the newsagent and Taylor Skye of Jockstrap. As evidenced by its impressive list of collaborators, the album represents a shift away from the reclusive manner in which the British artist has historically made his bodies of work and showcases the way in which his greatest strengths are highlighted through embracing community.

Dream Fatigue also includes the previously-released tracks “Hannah Montana,” “Grandma Song,” “Indecision (feat. Daniel Caesar)” and “Iron Man,” the latter of which is the final taste of the album pre-release, which he debuted yesterday via his COLORS performance. Today, fans can hear the rest of the album, including “Elvis,” the song featuring Turnstile’s Brendan Yates that was first performed by the two artists back in August during Rex’s underplay performance at London’s Village Underground. This Monday, Rex will close the loop by sharing the Yates-directed music video for the song.

From Dream Fatigue’s inception to release, Rex’s community has been on full display. At All Points East this past summer, Rex brought out Ravyn Lenae to perform the remix of her hit song “Love Me Not” during his set. The next night, Tyler, The Creator brought Rex during his second headlining performance of the festival to perform their collaboration “Boredom” from Tyler’s Flower Boy album. A mere days later, the circle was completed when Daniel Caesar invited Rex to the stage at his sold-out O2 Arena show to perform their collaboration “Indecision,” which was released in August as the first taste of material from Dream Fatigue.

Over the summer, Rex started a series of intimate shows where he performed in fans’ homes across the UK, Ireland, Asia and Europe where they had the opportunity to select a personalized set list from a catalog spanning 10 years. Those shows have continued through album release, bringing both the music of Dream Fatigue and Rex’s storied career directly to his fans.

Dream Fatigue Tracklist

1. Penelope
2. Elvis (feat. Brendan Yates)
3. Handsome
4. Grandma Song
5. Hannah Montana
6. Iron Man
7. The Colosseum (feat. Mustafa)
8. Boyfriend
9. Empty Stage
10. Indecision (feat. Daniel Caesar)
11. Roleplay
12. Dream Fatigue

About Rex Orange County and Dream Fatigue

For years, Rex Orange County made music alone. A famously introverted artist with early associations to the bedroom-pop scene, he played and produced everything himself – not just out of DIY necessity, but, if he’s honest with himself, out of choice. “The more minds in the room making decisions? That equaled confusion for me,” Rex says. But that quietly changed in 2024, when he stepped out of the proverbial bedroom to connect with friends and collaborators.

Now in 2026, Rex will release his most self-assured album yet, Dream Fatigue, he sounds more like himself than ever – sharpened by an impressive circle of legendary artists involved in the project. “To let people in is to let them take the thing out of you as well,” he says of how collaboration has only strengthened his sound.

Back in 2015, when being aloof or cryptic still held cultural currency, Rex emerged as a sensitive teen willing to be emotionally honest in public. Over the past decade, he has discreetly become one of the most influential and emotionally resonant artists of his generation, amassing billions of streams. His five studio albums – including 2019’s critically-acclaimed Pony – live in a liminal space between soul, pop, and classic singer-songwriter storytelling. Since the release of his 2015 debut bcos u will never b free, he has built a deep, lasting connection with his Gen Z audience, drawn early praise from Tyler, The Creator, and sold out iconic venues like the Hollywood Bowl (in a single day), Red Rocks and Radio City Music Hall. There were people to help, of course, but really, he did all that alone. “I was always isolating and making music so internally, covering as many roles as possible, probably to satisfy some kind of control freak vibe,” he recalls from his home in London.

When that self-imposed solitary confinement started to chafe, Rex opened the door just a little: he jumped on the remix of Ravyn Lenae’s track “Love Me Not” in 2024, provided music for the 2025 film Lurker (and inspiration for its lead actor, Archie Madekwe), and worked on tracks with Grammy-winning artist Daniel Caesar, alongside Mustafa (formally known as Mustafa the Poet) and Devonté Hynes (Blood Orange). He even stepped inside the atelier of Louis Vuitton with one of his idols, Pharrell Williams, to create the minimalistic, funky, and infectious “Take a Drive.”

This was just the beginning. Dream Fatigue took shape on the move – unplanned trips to New York, Toronto, Rome, Egypt, Ethiopia, and LA, often with nothing but a laptop and a pair of little speakers. It was a radical departure from his old process: most of these songs were born on guitar, not built in a studio. Along the way, his growing friendships with Daniel Caesar, Mustafa, and Dev Hynes led him to Brendan Yates, of genre-defining hardcore band Turnstile. All four ended up on the record, featuring or writing, working in collaboration with producer Dylan Wiggins with additional contributions by Taylor Skye of Jockstrap.

The result: classic songwriting, gentle melodies and curious hooks with unique production. Ultimately, the unmistakable sound of a group of artists at the peak of their powers. Being in the room with his peers gave Rex a sharp discipline and new bar to reach. Together they would determinedly finish every song they started, rather than leave a coterie of half-baked demos in their wake. “Suddenly your eyes open to everything, and you just want it. You want to raise the bar – because when you’re playing alongside someone like Dev [Hynes], a true 20-year legend with impeccable taste, or Daniel Caesar, who has incredible melodies spilling out of him, or Mustafa, a phenomenal storyteller through lyricism, you feel it,” Rex says excitedly. “I think we all push each other that way, our whole circle of friends.” In that vein, Rex became ruthless about the quality of his lyrics.

Moving further away from autobiography for Dream Fatigue (because, really, he says, “I’m in a happy, settled place, I’ve got my dog – I’m chilling”), Rex developed a protagonist who tries on personas to win over a girl he loves. In an effort to be more than he is, he puts on all these characterisations, represented by the playful song titles – “Hannah Montana,” “Iron Man,” “Elvis” – and the album title emerged from that idea. “This guy is tired of dreaming and becoming all these people in the pursuit of that dream,” explains Rex. Whether it’s the dreamlike indie pop of “Penelope,” with its vivid storytelling and ethereal backing vocals provided by up-and-coming UK artist dexter in the newsagent, or the echoing, folk-inflected ballad of the title track, Rex’s music has quietly stepped into elevated singer-songwriter territory, the kind of melodic instinct and lyrical craft you hear with someone like Paul Simon or Joni Mitchell.

Turnstile’s Brendan Yates played drums and sang on “Elvis” before signing on to direct its video. Rex says the two bonded early as fellow drummers, working out parts together, and describes Brendan, even amid receiving Grammy nominations during their sessions, as “extremely sweet, extremely considerate, really hard working.” On its modern R&B stylings – gently plucked guitars, Hollywood strings, and smooth duetting vocals – Rex uses “Elvis” to reconfigure the classic love song, singing softly on the chorus about wanting no one else by his side, through good times and bad. “I’m not so calm, I shake my legs like I’m Elvis / I wanna be your only friend ‘cause I’m selfish,” he sings to a girl you start to imagine in more detail with every song.

On “Indecision (feat. Daniel Caesar)” Rex creates a church of layered harmonies for her, as he considers whether to keep trying to win her. Unguarded, he lets the timeless melody carry the weight of the song as the soulful arrangement lifts it to the skies. “On god, I’ll have to sabotage,” he sings with a wink, as a guitar slides in for a ‘70s riff. Elsewhere, on “Boyfriend,” the sadness of love lost is elevated further still, with billowing Hollywood strings and frilly woodwind underscoring the song’s plainspoken plea: I hope you don’t find a better boyfriend. He sings with the earnest energy of R&B-pop boybands past, “I know that I’ve ruined the boy you thought you were choosing / I’m tryna be a better boyfriend.”

Again and again across its melodically economical but harmonically rich 12 tracks, Rex proves on Dream Fatigue that there’s a path through a culture where, as he and many others lament, music has become secondary to aesthetics, social media presence, and packaging. Each sweetly sad moment is built on the kind of intimate simplicity – mostly born from Rex feeling each song out on the guitar – that lasts decades.

Dream Fatigue seems to have genuinely cracked something open within Rex. He talks with enthusiasm about his own dreams, of how he wants to enjoy the process of releasing music again by focusing on travel and live performance. “I want fans to experience the music in the same way it was made, on the move, just me & a guitar, in intimate settings. Ideally I’m gonna turn up to people’s houses and perform in their living room… if they’ll have me” he laughs.

“Suddenly I feel this need to make things more fun, DIY, and even less pressure,” he says. That’s the thing about letting people in: control isn’t yours alone anymore. Each person is an extra body in the room, autonomous, ready to bring their own improvisation and spontaneity. Call it collaborative solitude – a tiny room full of people, and somehow, more Rex Orange County than ever.

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