Albums to watch

It's Real

Ex Hex

It's Real

Second album from Mary Timony, Betsy Wright, and Laura Harris, the Washington, DC-based garage punk trio

ADM rating[?]

7.4

Label
Merge Records
UK Release date
22/03/2019
US Release date
22/03/2019
  1. 10.0 |   The Skinny

    The musicality of It’s Real is deliciously idiosyncratic, yet refreshing and musically progressive
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  2. 8.5 |   Paste Magazine

    Great, unqualified awesomeness soaked in ‘80s and ‘90s rock ‘n roll, echoing anyone and everyone from Joan Jett to Sleater-Kinney to Scorpions and even to Tsunami Bomb
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  3. 8.0 |   God Is In The TV

    The whole album shakes with frantic yet taut sonics, creating sounds that linger in your muscle fibres long after the tunes come to an end. At only 37 minutes it’s an album that doesn’t hang around long, but it kicks ass whilst it does
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  4. 8.0 |   Rolling Stone

    Snarl, arena-scale roar, and real-world hurt
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  5. 8.0 |   Mojo

    Radiates bright, Buzzcocks-meet-The Knack groove. Print edition only

  6. 8.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    Accomplishes the one thing anyone would have questioned of Ex Hex after their debut – could they and would they expand their palette on their next outing
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  7. 8.0 |   NME

    The DC punks edge into glam territory, as if their low-ceilinged dive bar is located on a space shuttle. Don your glittery outfits and get ready to mosh
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  8. 8.0 |   DIY

    Every bit as essential as last time out
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  9. 8.0 |   Uncut

    There are moments of warm levity on It’s Real, especially when the band blow somebody off
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  10. 8.0 |   The Quietus

    Another album of bleak-banishing good times rock & roll... this time with a hint of Def Leppard
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  11. 8.0 |   The FT

    Big riffs, big melodies, and a breath of fresh hair
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  12. 7.8 |   Pitchfork

    The second album from Mary Timony’s band suggests that the hard rock of debut Rips was no dalliance: This time, they mine the denim-clad AOR of Billy Squier and Foreigner
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  13. 7.5 |   Northern Transmissions

    Ex Hex fairs much better in a busy and frantic mood, as many of the faster songs on the album seem to suggest
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  14. 7.0 |   PopMatters

    It's Real proves that Ex Hex can draw influences from different eras of rock music and spin them into something that sounds like only them
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  15. 7.0 |   Exclaim

    In the kaleidoscopic turns of its riffs and the lofty heights of its choruses, It's Real is a perfect soundtrack for forging ahead at high velocity
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  16. 7.0 |   No Ripcord

    Like that secondhand vinyl sitting on your shelf that never got reissued, it contains deep, thick grooves that always sound fresh regardless of its dwindling shelf life
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  17. 6.3 |   Earbuddy

    As an overall experience, it’s real good but never great
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  18. 6.0 |   Under The Radar

    The melodies are as strong as on Ex Hex's debut and many tunes here will easily linger
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  19. 6.0 |   Q

    Robust structuring is a blessing and curse: for all the frills and trapdoors, Ex-Hex's workmanlike rhythms eventually get monotonous. Print edition only

  20. 6.0 |   The Observer

    For a new band, this would be a perfectly serviceable debut, but with Ex Hex having flown so high previously, It’s Real is a disappointment
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  21. 5.0 |   Clash

    In these trying times, it’d benefit from being a whole lot more confrontational
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