The Window＜Colored Vinyl＞

Following some time off the road due to COVID-19 restrictions, and the release of a downtime collection of re-recorded early songs (Happy Birthday, Ratboy), Ratboys eventually made their way to Seattle to track their fourth album with producer Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie). Their first time recording outside of their base of Chicago, it found them further expanding their sound palette with instruments like rototoms and talk boxes. The resulting 11-song set, The Window, is a volatile one that continues a gradual shift in balance toward harsher guitar tones and more energy without shunning the ambling, jangly alt-country that has co-existed with the bands Breeders-revering alt-rock side since their full-length debut. They start things off with a bang on "Making Noise for the Ones You Love," a squealing punk-rock jam that opens with spacy, howling effects, churning drums, and layers of grungy guitars. Leader Julia Steiner inevitably softens the blow with her distinctively girlish, if malaise-steeped vocal tone and lyrics like "Looking out of the window/I turn on my favorite song/Wishing I could call you up." The singers guiding melody eventually brings the noise into step behind the words "But Im not gonna think about that now" as the jam morphs into a tuneful banger. Ratboys re-introduce familiar twang as early as second track "Morning Zoo," a hooky midtempo tune about anxiety thats set at a train crossing. Appearing later, "No Way" is even more countrified but injected with feedback and distortion, including during one of the albums many elongated guitar solos. Fully dedicated to the sauntering inclined is the sure-to-be-divisive "Black Earth, WI," a sprawling, over-eight-minute straight-to-tape recording whose long instrumental segments and solos constitute either a momentum killer or a grooving album highlight -- the album equivalent of a long toke -- depending on musical preference. Apart from that track, however, angst endures even in quieter moments, including on the quasi-acoustic closer, "Bad Reaction"; its melancholy ruminations are right in line with the wounded sentiments of contrasting rockers like the exhilarated "Empty," the tenser "Its Alive," and the pogo-punky "Crossed That Line" ("Had to go to the basement show/To have some fun"), which ultimately stand as the moody albums most cathartic and defining. ~ Marcy Donelson