Ratboys fill the void and then some on Singin’ to an Empty Chair.
On their sixth album, Singin’ to an Empty Chair, Ratboys take a title that suggests absence and turn it into something disarmingly full. What begins as a meditation on estrangement — vocalist Julia Steiner reaching across an emotional gap — quickly unfolds into one of the band’s most vibrant, confident records to date.
Reuniting with producer Chris Walla, the band tracked between a rural Wisconsin cabin and Electrical Audio in Chicago, and you can feel that balance of homespun intimacy and live-room punch. The songs breathe. They shimmer. They occasionally kick the door in.
“Anywhere” bursts with fizzy power-pop urgency, while “Penny in the Lake” leans into irresistible post-country twang. “Just Want You to Know the Truth” slows things down for a quietly devastating moment of clarity. And then there’s “Light Night Mountains All That,” a sprawling “wormhole jam” that proves Ratboys are more than happy to get a little cosmic when the mood strikes.
This is the first record Steiner has written since beginning therapy, and that self-examination sharpens every lyric. The emotional weight is real, but so is the wit. The band sound locked-in, adventurous, and completely at ease with who they are.
The chair may be empty, but Ratboys are playing like the room is packed.
“Singin’ to an Empty Chair” out now via New West Records.
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