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Miles Kalchik

The four members of Ratboys.

Ratboys

media release;  General Admission Standing Room: $20ADV / $25DOS

Reserved Balcony Seating: $35ADV / $40DOS

As Paste sums it up, “Ratboys are back, baby.” The beloved Chicago band will release their new album, Singin’ to an Empty Chair, on February 6 via New West Records. Despite its title, the album isn’t defined by what’s missing. Rather, it’s the beginning of an important dialogue with a close loved one vocalist/guitarist Julia Steiner finds herself estranged from. The music on the band’s sixth studio album fills the space that person left behind with 11 songs showcasing Ratboys’ twangy effervescence. They’re as confident as they’ve ever been and more emotionally interrogative than ever before. If the band’s last record, 2023’s widely-praised The Window, was “a level-up record” (Pitchfork), then Singin’ to an Empty Chair is Ratboys at the peak of their powers. Though the album navigates complex family dynamics, the band expertly weaves in candid honesty, chaos, and whimsy along the way. Humor finds its way into the conversation on lead single “Anywhere,” which Rolling Stone says “taps into the anxious restlessness of yearning with a twangy power-pop energy that comes through in its rumbling drums and off-kilter lightning bolt lead guitar riff.”

The album announcement follows the release of the track “Light Night Mountains All That,” which garnered glowing praise from Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The FADER, Alternative Press, Exclaim, Consequence, and many others.“One of the most exciting bands working right now” (Aquarium Drunkard), Ratboys will tour across North America in early 2026.