Written collaboratively from start to finish in Seattle, ‘The Window’ is the fourth album from Chicago’s Ratboys – and it finds the four-piece ruminating on love and grief.
‘Making Noise for the Ones You Love’ opens the album with a burst of intense feedback and pulsating drums that recall Deerhunter or The Walkmen. Julia Steiner’s distorted vocals talk about driving home and offer a promise never to fake it – a mantra that runs through this band. There’s more of a country tilt on ‘Morning Zoo’ while ‘Crossed That Line’ is a two-minute slice of punk rock complete with stop-start riffs and even a solo. Previous single ‘It’s Alive!’ is a power pop anthem with lyrics about being ‘So close to a close call again’ before ‘No Way’ takes the album into a Big Thief-esque sound with visceral lyrics: ‘I’ll take a penny for it out thoughts and I’ll throw it straight to hell’.
‘The Window’ opens in acoustic fashion before veering into more of an emo-meets-The Pains of Being Pure of Heart sound, complete with tales of regret and pain: ‘How could I know that you wouldn’t come back home? I sit down at the table and fiddle with my phone’. ‘Empty’ has more of an ambient introduction while ‘Break’ and the 8 1/2-minute centrepiece ‘Black Earth, WI’ are expertly crafted and showcase a band gleefully enjoying experimenting with their sound. The closing ‘Bad Reaction’ starts in quieter fashion, finding Julia looking back on her past and taking stock of how she ‘Got some bad habits fully formed’.
‘The Window’ is an album that finds Ratboys looking out to a new world full of hope, despair and humor.
