Singin' to an Empty Chair [Pink Cassette]

Ratboys - Singin' to an Empty Chair [Pink Cassette]

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 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.” “It's not all doom and gloom,” Steiner says. “The experience of making this record definitely gives me hope for whatever happens next.”

Track Listing:
A1. Open Up
A2. Know You Then
A3. Light Night Mountains All That
A4. Anywhere
A5. Penny in the Lake
A6. Strange Love
B1. The World, So Madly
B2. Just Want You to Know the Truth
B3. What's Right?
B4. Burn It Down
B5. At Peace in the Hundred Acre Wood