By Berlinda Recacho
Neil Finn observes in the Crowded House song "Nails in My Feet": "My life is a house/I crawl through the window/Walk across the floor/And into the reception room." I often think of this line when I listen to a new album. There is something revelatory about an album's specific order, which may not even be evident until you've listened to it all the way through several times. When I was an impatient kid, I would forgo the album tracks for the hits. Much later, I realized that a record might be meant to be toured in a certain way; The Window, by Chicago-based band Ratboys is one of these. This is their first full album, after a decade of singles. Guided by producer Chris Walla (an original member of Death Cab for Cutie), the quartet of co-guitarist and vocalist Julia Steiner, guitarist Dave Sagan, Marcus Nuccio on drums and Sean Neumann on bass and vocals takes listeners through an open house of multiple genres and a parallel journey through a gamut of emotions.
"Making Noise for the Ones You Love" might be the sound that guides you back from a sleepless night to the hangover of the waking world. The static of feedback leads to the thud of drums and crunching guitar, as Steiner's fuzzy vocals cut through, calling for the creative repair of a broken heart: "I'm not gonna pick my brain apart... I get up/and write some stuff." "Morning Zoo" invites us in with a bright Paisley Underground tune, all jangly guitar and bluegrass undertones as Steiner ushers us out, sweetly singing, "I kill my thoughts with a knife/And blow a kiss to silence." The edgy, punchy "Crossed that Line" dares us to follow, live a little, get in trouble. "It's Alive" builds up with grand expectations to an irresistible mournful riff. This hooky, catchy, earworm is the showcase, the room you show off to guests, with the best view and perfect light. There's even a surprise realization in the bridge: "So, I pass the time/look to the side/I feel it all/frozen in my house/all around/it's in the stars/it's speeding toward the sign..." "No Way" is an undulating, insistent, rant against oppression. Steiner's lilting, gentle voice is unexpectedly powerful as she declares: "I'm stuck/with a belly for a heart/at the bottom of a well/there's no way you'll control me/I'll take a penny for your thoughts/And I'll throw it straight to hell/There's no way you'll control me/again."
At the halfway point, the album hinges on its lovely title track. Passing through this looking glass and the space seems changed from the perspective of the other side. "So take this part of me/Last in the middle/Making sure to breathe/One last time/I see you through The Window." What starts as a ballad about a breakup expands into a soaring anthem about resilience, then moves on into the future. When Steiner sings, "Sue, Sue/You'll always be my girl", it is simultaneously shattering and restorative, admitting the obvious and not falling apart, and instead walking away stronger for having had the experience.
The hard strumming pattern that starts "Empty" leads into a driving guitar riff. The singsong response "I have" is a declaration -- of admission, rather than possession -- and the answer to: "How empty are you/ are you sorry??/Tell the truth/I have." In "Break", melodic vocals ease into something more fierce then drop back out: "It's on again/Your favorite show/Once again/How it starts/And how it ends."
"Black Earth, WI" stretches out like a long corridor of rolling country rock. Sagan's extended guitar solo starts at 2:18 and plays to 7:10 until Steiner sings the last lines like an altered nursery rhyme and the song gently and abruptly ends. "I Want You (Fall 2010)" is clever pop layered with the stutter of past technology and the irresistible pull of yesterday's actions and obsessions: "Now we're driving round Michigan/Hours flyin by/With the windows down/Listening to Maps and Atlases... Yeah it's right/I love this feeling/Burning all my blank CDs/ never meant so much to me.” "Bad Reaction" is the echo in the hall on the way out. A stripped down voice demands “What’s the one thing you love, now?" while instruments fill in the spaces inbetween, like a second voice.
It appears that this house is a little bit haunted -- the way we all are -- by the residue of the past, the results of relationships, the effect of our actions. Ratboys create a listening experience full of dimension and nuance as The Window invites you to step over the sash, push through the screen, and explore its rooms all over again.
The Window by Ratboys is out now.
[Photo: Ratboys Bandcamp]