“It’s Not the Same Anymore” by Rex Orange County

by Amanda London· Published March 5, 2021· Updated March 5, 2021

The easiest way of understanding Rex Orange County’s “It’s Not the Same Anymore” is as it being symbolic of the singer recognizing that he has aged. And this doesn’t simply involve him realizing that he’s not as joyful now as when he was a child. Rather it’s more like he learned a lesson along the way. And that would be a notion akin to success not being the same as actual happiness.

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Self Esteem Issues

His present feelings of discontent are both person and interpersonal. It is clear based on the first verse that he has self-esteem issues, i.e. feeling as he regularly ‘lets himself down in a big way’.

In fact as further expounded upon in the fourth verse, this particular condition which he suffers from is even worse internally than what his loved ones can perceive on the outside.

And in terms of actually dealing with other people, we see in the second verse that Rex tends to ‘put on his best face’ even though he may be feeling like crap inside. This particular passage, in terms of how it depicts other people always harassing the singer, reads as if it speaks to his celebrity.

Fame isn’t as Great as it Appears

Indeed in going back to the aforementioned thesis sentiment as alluded to in the first paragraph of this post, the underlying theme of this whole piece can be ascertained as being Orange County coming to discover, through experience, that fame is not all it’s cracked up to be.

It’s like before he blew up, “life was simple”. And he “should be happy” considering that he’s a famous musician and all – an enviable fate by most standards. But this lifestyle has proven to be more stressful than he idealized. And even the rich material aspect of it is not to his satisfaction.

For instance, Rex finds himself fantasizing about the times when he “used to be so hungry” as if those were the good ol’ days. For in the midst of filling his stomach he has apparently also developed some type of self-hatred. So reading in-between the lines it can be argued that Rex is sort of an anti-celebrity. We can define an anti-celebrity as an individual who blows up yet never actually embraces the Hollywood lifestyle. A typical example of such a person would be American rapper NF of “Let You Down” fame.

Rex Learns a Lesson

But the song does not end on such a negative note or cliffhanger. Instead the vocalist has taken the less-than-ideal trajectory of his life as a lesson learned. In fact at his age, he is able to comprehend that there is no value harping in the past. Or more precisely, he has come to the conclusion that it is he who is primarily responsible for his own happiness.

And in the midst of this epiphany, he takes a stand, adopting a more-positive outlook on his life. And instead of feeling as if he’s a f**k up, he instead concludes that his life is even “better” than it was before.

And yes, to some extent the vocalist does come off as if he is confused. But more importantly than his changing disposition is the fact that he has decided to make the best out of the hand that he has dealt himself.

Release Date of “It’s Not the Same Anymore”

This song came out on 25 October 2019 as part of Rex Orange County’s third album, “Pony”. The overall project performed well, respectively peaking at numbers 3 and 5 on the Billboard 200 and UK Albums Chart.

Did Rex Orange County write this song?

Yes. The track was written and produced by Rex and Ben Baptie, with Michael Underwood serving as an additional co-writer.

Rex Orange County is a singer from Hampshire, England. Apparently his moniker has nothing to do with his place of residence but is rather a derivative of a nickname he picked up in school (The OC). And that itself was derived from his legal last name (O’Connor).

He has been releasing music as an independent artist since 2015. His big break came sometime after the release of his second album, 2017’s “Apricot Princess”. He was subsequently signed by RCA Records. And as such “Pony”, a product of RCA, was the first of his projects released under a major label.