Ratboys' Singin' To An Empty Chair is one of the very best albums of 2026, and now they're making it bigger and better. Next week, the band will release a deluxe edition of the album featuring covers of Empty Chair tracks by PUP, Ducks Ltd., Wild Pink, Free Range, and Bad Bad Hats, plus Ratboys' own cover of the Marked Men's "Fix My Brain" from a SiriusXM session. The band's Julia Steiner explains the choice of cover:
The guys, especially Marcus, were already long-time fans of The Marked Men (and of Jeff Burke’s other band Radioactivity), but to me "Fix My Brain" was a total revelation. I hyper-fixated on the song in ways that are pretty rare for me these days: I would find excuses to steal away and listen to it on repeat, and, when we got home from tour, I immediately sat down with my acoustic guitar to learn the chord changes.
When it came time to choose a cover to perform for our SiriusXM live session earlier this year, it was a no brainer (ha) to finally give this one a go, and it still feels so fun to play it and so hopeful to sing the lyrics about having the guts to admit your mistakes and do better. That sincerity is so badass, and so catchy, and it jives perfectly with what we try to achieve in our own songs.
In addition to the new Marked Men cover, Ratboys' NPR Tiny Desk concert is out today. It features performances of the epic "Black Earth, WI," from 2023's also-stunning The Window plus Singin' To An Empty Chair's "Penny In The Lake" and "What’s Right?" Check out "Fix My Brain" and the Tiny Desk concert below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Open Up"
02 "Know You Then"
03 "Light Night Mountains All That"
04 "Anywhere"
05 "Penny In The Lake"
06 "Strange Love"
07 "The World, So Madly"
08 "Just Want You To Know The Truth"
09 "What's Right?"
10 "Burn It Down"
11 "At Peace In The Hundred Acre Wood"
12 "Fix My Brain (SiriusXM Session)"
13 "Know You Then (PUP)"
14 "Light Night Mountains All That (Ducks Ltd.)"
15 "Anywhere (Bad Bad Hats)"
16 "Strange Love (Wild Pink)"
17 "What's Right? (Free Range)"
Singing' To An Empty Chair (Deluxe) is out 9/18 on New West. Pre-order it here.
