Despite it's 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 band's sixth studio album 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.
Ratboys fill GN with near-misses, ghost pets, lonely rooms, and the strange comedy of staying alive. It is twangy indie rock with a diarist’s eye and a band’s instinct for lift.
Printer’s Devil catches Ratboys expanding from porch-light folk-rock into a full-band rush of power-pop, alt-country, and Midwestern static. Julia Steiner’s songs feel warm to the touch even when they’re tracing the fault lines under the floorboards.