featuring the very best of americana, alt.country and roots music
February 8, 2026
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
IF YOU ONLY LiSTEN to ONE RECORD THiS WEEK
The Uproxx site recently declared Ratboys likeable in the way your mailman is likeable (certainly a backhanded compliment). Frontperson Julia Steiner is more grounded than Adrianne Lenker and less screamy than Karly Hartzman, demonstrating a charm even as she works through personal catharsis on Ratboys' sixth album, Singin' To An Empty Chair. Credit the New West label for embracing the Chicago quartet, whose music only occasionally brushes against anything rootsy even as they will sometimes call themselves post-country. Produced by Chris Walla who worked on 2023's The Window, the collection favors a guitar-forward indie pop vibe, with elements of punk and emo.
Especially since 2020's Printer's Devil, Ratboys have steadily grown into an exceptional band. While Steiner remains the focal point, Dave Sagan's expressive guitars are essential to the quartet's strength, jangling on "Open Up", then rumbling as the song unfolds. Pick all the locks inside our heads, Steiner beckons, It takes a while, in your defense / But I got lots of time. Lengthier numbers such as "Just Want Your To Know the Truth" grant the players space to play off one another, Sagan's guitar wandering restlessly until it's corralled for a momentary resolution.
"Just Want You To Know" is one of the handful of tunes that most clearly work from a roots music palette. "Penny In the Lake" progresses at a rural walking pace: There's a penny in the lake / But it's not what I thought / It's just someone's wish they forgot. As a vocalist, Julia Steiner recalls Katie Crutchfield, favoring emotional authenticity over prettiness and perfection. "Late Night Mountains All That" features the singer's least mannered delivery, repeating the accusation, You didn't care / You didn't care. "What's Right" demonstrates Steiner's more certain writing, as well as Singin' To An Empty Chair's theme of processing feelings of abandonment and estrangement: My subconscious is a man / He softly says to me / I'll vanish when you need me to / I'll hold you when you sleep.
Ratboys don't take an either/or approach to their genre of choice, but tend to feature a sound that is overall more blended and balanced from song to song. The closer, "At Peace In the Hundred Acre Wood", stands as the project's quietest and most poetic moment. Above an almost folky twang, Steiner offers the image: Birds on a wire / They fell asleep because they all forgot to sing. Ten months from now, Singin' To An Empty Chair will rightly earn its place among the year's best records, both here at R&B HQ an no doubt at other right-minded sites.
ROUTES-cast February 8, 2026
^ Ratboys, "Penny In the Lake" Singin' To An Empty Chair (New West, 26)
- Buck Meek, "Ring Of Fire" The Mirror (4AD, Feb 27)
- Big Harp, "I Got An Itch" Runs To Blue (Saddle Creek, Mar 27)
- Sluice, "Beadie" Companion (Mtn Laurel, Mar 27) D
- Natalie Jane Hill, "Colors" Hopeful Woman (Dear Life, Mar 6)
- Reds Pinks & Purples, "Heaven Of Love" Acknowledge Kindness (Fire, Apr 24) D
- Voxtrot, "My Peace" Dreamers In Exile (Voxtrot, Feb 27) D
- Crooked Fingers, "Insomnia" Swet Deth (Merge, Feb 27)
- Daniel Romano & Outfit, "Cardinal Star" Preservers Of the Pearl (You've Changed, Mar 13)
- Meg Lui, "Gone Girl" single (Asthmatic Kitty, 26) D
- Iron & Wine, "Roses" Hen's Teeth (Sub Pop, Feb 27)
- Low Cut Connie, "Livin' In the USA" Livin' In the USA (Contender, Jul 3)
- Jesper Lindell, "If Love Was Money" 3614 Jackson Highway (Yep Roc, Mar 6)
- Black Keys, "You Got To Lose" Peaches! (Easy Eye, Mar 1) D
- Charlotte Cornfield, "Living With It (ft Feist)" Hurts Like Hell (Marge, Mar 26)
- Leeroy Stagger, "Swimming Back To You" single (Cordova Bay, 26) D
- Tender Things, "Sleeping Bag Blues" single (Spaceflight, 26) D
- Ole Kirking, "Bare Minimum" Cowboy Lie Detector Machine (Die With Your Boots, 26)
- 49 Winchester, "Pardon Me" Change Of Plans (New West, May 15) D
- Benjamin Tod, "Vengeance and Grace" Vengeance and Grace (Tod, Apr 17) D
- Brit Taylor, "Around and Around" Land Of the Forgotten (Cut A Shine, Mar 6)
- Jay Buchanan, "Deep Swimming" Weapons Of Beauty (Sacred Tongue, 26)
- Pert Near Sandstone, "Shooting Star" Side By Side (PNS, Feb 27)
- Yarn, "Never Enough" Saturday Night Sermon (Ardsley, Apr 24)
- John Craigie, "Call Me a Bullet" I Swam Here (Zabriskie Point, 26)
- Chicago Farmer, "Great River Road" Homeaid (LoHi, Mar 6)
- I'm With Her, "Obvious Child" Sing Me Alive (Rounder, Apr 17) D
- Big Richard, "Alaska" Pet (Signature Sounds, 26)
- Melissa Carper & Theo Lawrence, "Joyous Time" Havin' a Talk (Warner, 26)
- Anna Tivel, "Saint Of Scrap Metal" Animal Poem B-sides EP (Fluff & Gravy, Mar 6)
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