Teeming with tag-team guitars, switching back and forth between squealing lead and brittle rhythm, Rainbow Shiner – the aptly prismatic latest to come from Ex Hex’ forthcoming It’s Real full-length – may be the D.C. trio’s brightest to date. Rarely, if ever, has a song so vividly recalled fellow Sheffielders Def Leppard and Arctic Monkeys in commensurate measure, but Mary Timony et aliae have somehow managed to conflate two such disparate styles into something that is neither dated nor knowingly droll, but rather a rumbustious smash that really shines in this unforeseen sunshine.
It’s Real is available from March 22nd via Merge Records, while Ex Hex play Village Underground on May 28th.