Ratboys Singin’ to an Empty Chair
There’s something about a Ratboys song that feels like emerging from a long depression into something a bit more bearable. Maybe it’s the songs, which are generally uptempo but choose jagged edges over bubbly gloss. Maybe it’s Julia Steiner’s voice, which, while always bright, never fails to contain a bit of bite while singing lyrics that hold more than a tinge of melancholy. Either way, the Chicago-based foursome continues to carve their own place in the indie-Americana sphere, and their latest record, Singin’ to an Empty Chair, takes a step above even 2023’s excellent The Window, marking Ratboys as one of America’s best rock bands.
Steiner wrote the lyrics on Singin’ to an Empty Chair in the aftermath of an estrangement from a loved one, evoking a set of emotions that recalls the band’s title track from that last album, which had Steiner’s grandfather in the grips of mourning – while fondly remembering – his wife. Similar kinds of grief? To a point, but Steiner filtering her loss through her own experiences stings even more. “Open Up” begins the album with chime-y guitars in a slow build (that “emerging” feeling I mentioned), while Steiner tries to dig at the truth – “What does it take to lie/What’s it gonna take to open up this time?” “Know You Then” is a tight, simmering look at how the person we know – or knew – changes, altering our perceptions of them even as we can’t “fix” their past – “Oh, I would have been there in less than a second/If time and space allowed.”
As good, though, as Ratboys are at crafting concise, poppy gems, they’re even better at creating transcendent, jammy wanderers. “Light Night Mountains All That” is an increasingly frenetic guitar squall barely tethered to Earth by Sean Neumann’s fantastic bass line. “Burn It Down” is an unapologetic political screed – “Hands off our fuckin’ mouths” – with Dave Sagan’s guitar going from gently probing to outright inferno (Sagan’s work, always great, goes to another level across Singin’ to an Empty Chair). And “Just Want You to Know the Truth” ties Steiner’s grief and Ratboys’ instrumental acumen together. Across its eight-plus minutes, the tune goes from an acoustic meander through memories of starry-eyed explorations of homes under construction – “We were dreamin’ of the kitchen/That would surely go right there” – to following the relationship well past its demise – “Once you had left home/We cleaned out the house/Came upon some skeletons/That none of us knew shit about” – countered, all the while, by ebbs and flows of guitars. The song never settles on a mood, which is the point – waves of grief and anger come during what Steiner experienced – what all of us experience at some point. And we usually do what the song does – ride the waves of emotion until we, hopefully, reach some sort of uneasy resolution that we can live with.
Song I Can’t Wait to Hear Live: “Anywhere” – I love the extended jammers on the record, but this uptempo rager squeezes all of the unrest across Singin’ to an Empty Chair into a tight, buzzy three minutes. If your new music-averse friend likes 80s rockers, play them this one.
Singin’ to an Empty Chair was recorded and engineered by Chris Walla, mixed by Walla and Chris Shaw and mastered by Heba Kadry. All songs written by Ratboys – Julia Steiner (acoustic and electric guitar, vocals, lyrics), Dave Sagan (electric guitar, pocket piano), Sean Neumann (bass, synth bass, vocals) and Marcus Nuccio (drums, tambourine, shaker, synthesizers). Additional musicians on the album include Walla (piano, tape loops, synthesizer), Elizabeth Jordan (cello), Andy Krull (pedal steel) and Jenny Conlee Hammond B3 Organ)
Go here to order Singin’ to an Empty Chair (out February 6): https://ratboysband.myshopify.com/
Check out tour dates here: https://www.ratboysband.com/tour
Enjoy our previous coverage here: REVIEW: Ratboys “The Window”