Tebi Rex: It’s Gonna Be Okay – Great lyrics and giddy exploration

“I still haven’t a clue,” croons Matt O’Baoill in the opening track of Tebi Rex’s second album, the heartedly titled It’s Gonna Be Okay, which brims with the energy of uncertainty. Tebi Rex are Maynooth’s Matt O’Baoill and Max Zanga, a duo that has landed on something special: a shared understanding of influences, allowing for a giddy exploration that sounds a lot like two mates having a laugh before slipping into a late-night deep and meaningful.

A loose narrative of death and anxiety in Ireland unfolds through these 11 tracks (each titled like chapters in a book), breezy and occasionally punctuated with darkness. The low synth on Lost Time underscores lyrics like “I’ve got death on my mind”, while Zanga’s blown-out vocals on It’ll Never Be Enough punctuates the despair. The latter is a giddy, everything-but-the-kitchen-sick production that occasionally overwhelms – the electric guitars in the chorus and middle-eight, especially – but given Zanga’s insistence that “it’s all too much”, perhaps that’s exactly the point.

While occasionally the mix lets the sound down, with O’Baoill’s vocals occasionally a little thin next to Zanga’s (see opener We’re Here Because We’re Here), it’s barely enough to detract from the energy of the record. The pair race through alt-pop, house and breezy tropical beats, anchored by what has always been the best part of their collaboration: the lyrics. On their second album, Tebi Rex continue to hone a sound that is uniquely theirs.