Ratboys

Despite its title, Ratboys’ new album Singin’ to an Empty Chair is not defined by what’s
missing. Rather, it’s the beginning of an important dialogue with a close loved one vocalist Julia
Steiner finds herself estranged from. The music on the band’s sixth studio album – its first for
New West Records – fills the space that person left behind with 11 songs showcasing Ratboys
at the peak of their powers — twangy, effervescent, as confident as they’ve ever been, and
perhaps more emotionally interrogative than ever before. The four-piece Chicago band followed
up 2023’s highly acclaimed The Window by reconvening with co-producer Chris Walla to begin
tracking at a rural Wisconsin cabin before taking the songs to Steve Albini’s famed Electrical
Audio studios in Chicago and later to Rosebud Studio in Evanston, Illinois. The results veer
from bubbly power-pop on “Anywhere” to irresistible post-country on “Penny in the Lake,” along
with heart-piercing ballads like “Just Want You to Know the Truth” and an exhilarating detour
into the extraterrestrial on “Light Night Mountains All That,” which Steiner dubs the band’s
mammoth “wormhole jam.” Singin’ to an Empty Chair also marks the first Ratboys album written
since Steiner began therapy, which the singer/lyricist credits for the clarity found across the
album’s unflinching examinations of relationship and self. Fittingly, as the album begins by
extending a hand into the void, it concludes with a scene of serenity – all while weaving candid
honesty, humor, chaos, and whimsy along the way. “It's not all doom and gloom,” Steiner says.
“The experience of making this record definitely gives me hope for whatever happens next.”