AOID
| AOID | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 9, 2015 | |||
| Studio | The Owlery, Chicago | |||
| Length | 33:44 | |||
| Label | Topshelf | |||
| Ratboys chronology | ||||
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| Alternate digital release cover | ||||
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| Cassette cover | ||||
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AOID is the debut album by American indie rock band Ratboys. It was released on 9 June 2015 on Topshelf Records.
Background[edit]
Some songs on the album ("Charles Bernstein," "Our Mortician’s Daughter," "Postman Song") had been part of Ratboys' live shows since mid-2012.[1] The oldest song on the album is "Postman Song", which Steiner wrote in 2007, but the majority were written in 2012–2013.[1]
The album was recorded at the Owlery in Chicago at the end of 2014.[1] Steiner recorded her vocals late at night to minimize noise from the shared space they recorded in.[2] Mike Politowicz, bassist and vocalist for Dowsing, passed the recordings to Topshelf Records, who released the album on LP, CD and cassette in 2015.[1][3]
Critical reception[edit]
CMJ and BrooklynVegan reviewed the album positively.[4][5] GoldFlakePaint called the album a "gleaming, joyous, raucous display of melodic indie-rock," and included it on their "Albums of the year" list in 2015.[6] More recently Elizabeth Handgun of Swim Into the Sound wrote that Ratboys "felt so coherent and solid from their debut, it is hard to imagine improvement."[7]
Kevin Williams of the Chicago Tribune was less positive, writing that the album is "almost like a sketch...really good but feeling incomplete."[8]
Track listing[edit]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "AOID" | 1:35 |
| 2. | "Tixis" | 3:28 |
| 3. | "MCMXIV" | 3:16 |
| 4. | "Charles Bernstein" | 5:23 |
| 5. | "Folk Song for Jazz" | 4:03 |
| 6. | "Postman Song" | 3:23 |
| 7. | "Our Mortician's Daughter" | 3:16 |
| 8. | "Bugs!" | 3:22 |
| 9. | "Pivotal Dates" | 2:51 |
| 10. | "And" | 3:03 |
| Total length: | 33:44 | |
Personnel[edit]
- Ratboys
- Julia Steiner – guitar, vocals
- Dave Sagan – guitar
- Will Lange – bass
- Pat Kennedy – drums
- Technical
- Seth Engel – recording, mixing
- Matt Dewine – mastering
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d Timothy Anderl (2015-06-02), "From The Horse's Mouth: Julia Steiner (Ratboys) on AOID", ghettoblastermagazine.com, Ghetto Blaster Magazine, retrieved 2024-04-15
- ^ Matt Mitchell (2023-06-06), "Ratboys Find Their View", pastemagazine.com, Paste, retrieved 2024-04-15
- ^ "AOID on the Topshelf webstore", topshelfrecords.com, Topshelf Records, archived from the original on 2015-09-16
- ^ Eric Davidson (2015-05-20), "Listen: Ratboys – AOID Album Stream, Plus Tour Dates", cmj.com, CMJ, archived from the original on 2015-09-23
- ^ Andrew Sacher (2015-05-14), "Ratboys releasing debut LP on Topshelf", brooklynvegan.com, BrooklynVegan, retrieved 2024-04-15
- ^ Tom Johnson, "Ratboys 'AOID'", goldflakepaint.co.uk, GoldFlakePaint, archived from the original on 2016-09-30
- ^ Elizabeth Handgun (2023-08-24), "Ratboys – The Window (review)", swimintothesound.com, Swim Into The Sound, retrieved 2024-04-15
- ^ Kevin Williams (2020-02-28), "'Printer's Devil' by Ratboys is yet another great album by a Chicago band, and you get two chances to hear them this weekend", chicagotribune.com, Chicago Tribune, retrieved 2024-04-16