''Rips'' is the debut studio album by American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band

Ex Hex ''Ex Hex'' is the third solo album from Mary Timony. It was released April 19, 2005 on Lookout! Records Lookout Records (stylized as Lookout! Records) was an independent record label, initially based in Laytonville, California and later in Ber ...

. It was released on October 7, 2014 by

Merge Records Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expande ...

Critical reception

''Rips'' holds a score of 84 out of 100 on the review aggregate site

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, indicating "universal acclaim". ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to th ...

'' writer Aaron Leitko gave ''Rips'' a "Best New Music" designation and remarked that the album "mostly finds the band walking away from Timony's established voice and pushing toward something more direct and energetic—embracing the past, but also blowing things up and starting again." Heather Phares of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

wrote that ''Rips'' "mixes simple pleasures and complicated ones into a completely life-affirming debut", while Laura Snapes of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' called the album "a reminder of rock’s glorious communal potential". ''NME'' named ''Rips'' the tenth best album of 2014. It also placed at number 11 on ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

''s

Pazz & Jop Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper ''The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abse ...

year-end critics' poll.

Year-end lists

Track listing

Personnel

;Ex Hex * Laura Harris – drums *

Mary Timony Mary Bozana Timony (born October 17, 1970) is an American independent singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboardist, and violist. She has been a member of the bands Helium, Autoclave and Wild Flag, and currently fronts Ex Hex. Timony's music is o ...

– guitar, vocals * Betsy Wright – bass guitar ;Additional personnel *

Mitch Easter Mitchell Blake Easter (born November 15, 1954) is a musician, songwriter, and record producer. Frequently associated with the jangle pop style of guitar music, he is known as producer of R.E.M.'s early albums from 1981 through 1984, and as frontm ...

– engineering * Bobby Harlow – mixing * Dennis Kane – tracking * Johann Kauth – artwork, layout *

Jeff Lipton Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes * ...

– mastering * Maria Rice – mastering assistant * Jonah Takagi – production, tracking, photography * Missy Thangs – recording assistant

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2014 debut albums Ex Hex (band) albums Merge Records albums