Ratboys – Singin’ to An Empty Chair
Back in 2021 with the Covid pandemic still raging, Ratboys found reason to celebrate. In April of that year, the Chicago group celebrated their 10th anniversary, commemorating a decade since Julia Steiner and Dave Sagan first offered up a set of homemade indie-folk recordings under the name RATBOY, a humbler and simpler incarnation of the group that bears only passing resemblance to what they’ve since become. But throwing a 10-year birthday stream offered the band the opportunity to take a look back over the road they’ve traveled and the growth they’ve undergone before embarking on the next leg of the journey, one of a quartet developing and shaping their sound in unison.
The band’s 2023 album The Window was the first Ratboys album written with all four members—Steiner, Sagan, bass player Sean Neumann and drummer Marcus Nuccio—collaboratively involved in the process of songwriting from beginning to end. Not coincidentally, it was their strongest album to date; there’s a reason we named it our Album of the Year. The Window wasn’t the end of that creative, collaborative evolution, however, just one significant stop along the way. A little under three years later, the growth they’ve undergone since then is readily apparent on Singin’ to An Empty Chair, a mature and self-assured album from one of the best rock bands in recent memory, yet one that sparks and ignites with inspiration throughout.
Singin’ to An Empty Chair mostly comprises similar ingredients as its predecessor; the band once again recorded with producer and former Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla, who helps to flesh out the 360-degree dimensions of each warmly dynamic melody. But the group took a different approach in crafting it, decamping to a cabin in Wisconsin to flesh out the songs before refining the final product at Chicago’s Electrical Audio, the late Steve Albini’s studio. And in capturing these 11 songs as live takes, there’s a looseness and agitation to the songs in spite of the craftsmanship on display, whether showcased through the War on Drugs-like road-worn groove of “What’s Right” or the frayed edges of first single “Light Night Mountains All That,” in which Steiner grows practically out of breath, yelling, “…but you didn’t care, didn’t care, did-n’t care!”
Ratboys’ knack for indie pop hooks is as sharp as it’s ever been, as evident on highlights such as the heartstring-tugging “Know You Then,” the charmingly cozy harmonies of “Strange Love” and the surging power pop energy of “Anywhere.” But by and large, Singin’ to An Empty Chair is an album of slow burns and open spaces, long builds and well-earned climaxes. Leadoff track “Open Up” takes its time to get off the ground, its hazy jangle hanging in the air like a dense fog before Nuccio fully commits to a steady kick-drum rhythm, Steiner asking, “What’s it gonna take to open up this time?” “Just Want You to Know the Truth” is something like a country-tinged counterpart to The Window‘s “Black Earth, WI,” gradually unfolding before rising up into a searing eruption of big, distorted guitars. And the seven-minute “Burn It Down” is rife with rustic wheeze and ragged glory, gathering heat at it tumbles forth until it finally catches fire and explodes into one of the album’s loudest and most thrilling moments. As the smoke clears and the inferno dies down, Steiner offers a kind of call to action, “Hands off your fuckin’ mouths/We’ve got to burn it down.”
The title of Singin’ to An Empty Chair references an exercise Steiner learned in therapy after becoming estranged from a close family member, and throughout the album are flecks of anguish and hurt. A child is bullied in “Know You Then” (“They would take your lunch and then/Make fun when you weren’t around“), a fear of abandonment emerges in “What’s Right” (“Will you look me in the eye and promise that you’ll stay with me“), and Steiner highlights the physical toll of bridging a divide between two people, “bending my back to break the ice” on “Open Up.” But through the tears and exhaustion there’s a sense that there’s always the possibility of a second chance and a new beginning, and a feeling of gratitude in spite of the stumbles, which Steiner encapsulates succinctly on “The World, So Madly”: “Live in the world so madly / I know now nothing’s gonna last.” Maybe closure remains elusive and chaos continues to rule, but when the four members of Ratboys are locked in, you get the sense that they’re ready to take on anything that comes their way.
Label: New West
Year: 2026
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Ratboys : Singin’ to An Empty Chair
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