Continued from page 18 through the difficult experience of estrangement from a family member while seeking a means to reconnect. The album title reflects the therapeutic exercise of voicing difficult subjects aloud to an absent partner. " What ' s it gonna take to open up," Steiner asks her phantom
partner in bright and conversational soprano on " Open Up." The sound of Empty Chair reveals an affinity for a broad range of styles from snarling indie rock to tumbling folk and swooning Americana. " Know You Then " has the crunch and soaring emotion of a lost Weezer track. The taut, chugging " Anywhere " paints a portrait of codependency in an extremely faithful family dog ' s separation anxiety. Steiner ' s melancholy plea and extended olive branch in the mid-tempo countrypop of " Just Want You to Know the Truth " are couched in beguiling acoustic chime and jangle, colored by weeping pedal steel. The impact isn ' t far removed from the most measured, hypnotic swings on Tom Petty ' s Wildflowers. Dave Sagan ' s guitar lines bend and twang through the countrified " Penny in the Lake." " It ' s just someone ' s wish they forgot," sings Steiner of her not-so-lucky find. The shimmering " The World, So Madly " comes to terms with a lack of control.
Drummer Marcus Nuccio and bassist Sean Neumann provide deft and powerful propulsion throughout the album, setting the tone for expansive songs like the pocket epic " Light Night Mountains All That," as Sagan veers toward " Kashmir "-adjacent folk fury and ultimately into an electronic breakdown. Neumann joins Steiner to sing the resolute " Burn It Down." The song identifies the angry urge to smash-andgrab before reducing the world to ash, but it ' s an exorcism meant to fuel constructive collaboration through reflection. Jenny Conlee of the Decemberists plays blissful Hammond B-3 organ on the optimistic closing track " At Peace in the Hundred Acre Woods." Steiner ' s lyric banishes midnight gloom in the welcome light of morning and the company of friends. Producer and former Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla returns following 2023 ' s The Window to helm Singin ' to an Empty Chair. The album ' s minimally adorned but potent sound rests in the strength of bona fide live-on-the-floor interaction, and these songs should ignite the Vic Theatre stage on April 18.( ratboysband. com)
– Jeff Elbel
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22 illinoisentertainer. com april 2026