Ratboys, the fourpiece band from Chicago, recently released their sixth studio album on February sixth, entitled Singing’ to an Empty Chair. Under the label New West, who largely works in the americana, indie rock, and alternative country scenes, Ratboys created an album that feels as though it’s holding your hand. The vocalist and lyricist Julia Stiener leads you on an emotional journey throughout the eleven tracks, totaling fifty minutes.
Produced by Chris Walla, the former guitarist for Death Cab for Cutie, the band leans into guitar driven indie rock, with honest and raw emotional lyrics opening up small moments in relationships. Steiner revealed that she has been estranged from a member of her family, and this album acts as a message and offering to reconnect.
The cover of the album features two empty chairs facing each other in a green sunlight field, framed by lush trees and a dirt path. It’s a reference to the empty chair technique of therapy, in which someone holds a conversation with a person who is not present – the empty chair. In an interview with Uproxx’s Steven Hyden, Steiner says that “My therapist suggested this Empty Chair Technique idea, and she wasn’t pushy about it. She just proposed it and said, “Make of this what you will.” And I gave it a go and recorded myself and listened back”. Throughout the album, Ratboys provide a type of sound that’s boundless, delving into quiet moments of guitar and bass interwoven with twangy interludes. The open and sincere lyrics feel like they are infused with the same sunlight of the album’s cover, warm and gentle as they mix with the drums that crash in waves.
The first song, “Open Up”, asks a person “What’s it gonna take to open up”, a constant pleading to connect and communicate with someone unwilling. It sets the scene and underlying question for the rest of the album, with an expansive sound that’s filled with heavy guitars and a synth that babbles along through Steiner’s high vocals.
“Penny in the Lake” opens with a quiet mangled noise before quickly transiting into a twangy country-esque guitar and drum beat. Sean Neumann’s bass leads a thumping beat that, combined with Steiner’s more up-tempo melody, help to release some of the tension from the previous track “Anywhere”. Penny is a song you might listen to on a roadtrip, a steady and joyful acoustic piece that you could do a jig to. It’s a bubbly song that encapsulates the little moments, still tinged with melancholy yet the ending line
There’s a penny in the lake / But it’s not what I thought / It’s just someone’s wish they forgot
bursts out defiantly before bleeding into the crash of drums, bass, and guitar. Throughout Ratboy’s album we are asked to not discard or ignore the heavy moments, but to instead embrace them and live alongside them. The emotional push and pull flows cohesively throughout each of the tracks, capturing difficult feelings and in between stages. Singing’ to an Empty Chair is an encouraging and cohesive album on dealing with grief and connection that I thoroughly enjoyed listening to.
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