Music: Ex Hex; Vince Staples; Indina Menzel
Ex Hex’s first full album, Rips, has the qualities we associate with a “summer album”: it’s full of fun and life. But don’t we also need those things as the weather turns, too?
Rips
Merge
Ex Hex’s first full album, Rips, has the qualities we associate with a “summer album”: it’s full of fun and life. But don’t we also need those things as the weather turns, too?
Rips is pure pop-punk; guitars are strummed and shredded with easy regularity, and Mary Timony’s vocals sound at turns like Siouxsie Sioux and Joan Jett. The album is distinguished by a feeling of comfort in its own skin – despite its tonguein- cheek angst. Timony has been a figure in the Washington, DC, punk scene for two decades. The ease of her sound took a long time to perfect – Rips is its culmination.
The album opens strong, with the catchy Don’t Wanna Lose, about the illusion of choice in a broken relationship: “You keep telling me it won’t be long/Well that’s not right and that’s not wrong.” Each song takes a nuanced approach to complicated modern relationships, but the album always maintain a sense of humour.
The energy of the album never flags, and wisely Ex Hex limit themselves to a trim 35 minutes. Highlights include Waste Your Time, Waterfall, and the wonderful Hot and Cold.
Hell Can Wait
Def Jam
