The background information on The Window, the fifth and latest album by Chicago band Ratboys, suggests they knew they had material that would benefit from an added level of commitment. The quartet broke from the usual practice of recording in their home base city and instead decamped to Seattle’s Hall of Justice studio. And they worked with Chris Walla, a name producer in indie rock circles thanks to his time behind the boards with the likes of Death Cab for Cutie and the Decemberists. Compelling as that evidence might be, the decisive proof of Ratboys’ collective confidence is the superior quality of every last track on the resulting album.

Like any proper outfit from the Upper Midwest, Ratboys default to lean, tough assertiveness in their craft. Comprised of lead singer and guitarist Julia Steiner, guitarist David Sagan, bassist Sean Neumann, and drummer Marcus Nuccio, the band pushes through songs like they’re moving steel girders: They’ve got a job to do and they’re damn well going to do it. Album opener “Making Noise for the Ones You Love” has a Hüsker Dü pummeling urgency delivered with twenty-first century refinement, and “Break” is full of thick, fuzzy guitars that put them shoulder to big shoulder with any number of their Chicago ancestors. There’s also a potent earthiness to the material here, most evident in the echoes of alt-country. The little twangy lilt to “No Way” initially positions them somewhere between the sweet melancholy of Jenny Lewis and the stark majesty of Big Thief, and then the son swells into the glorious typhoon of spruced-up classic rock.

Expansiveness is another characteristic that keeps cropping up on the album. Early single “Black Earth, WI” has an epic length that pushes past eight minutes, and Ratboys fill every moment of it with ideas. That fulsomeness is even present when the songs are tighter, whether the slickly tangy “Morning Zoo,” the keening “It’s Alive,” or the wiry ballad “Bad Reaction.” The ability to meld epic feeling with tight songcraft is most powerful of the album’s title cut, a song inspired by Steiner’s grandfather bidding goodbye to his dying wife when separated by glass due to safety protocols instituted during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The song recalls Phoebe Bridgers at her most devastatingly blunt: “I wish you were right next to me/ Instead I’m alone/ But, I’ll always have the memories/ Of our life together.”

The Window is simply a fantastic record. It implicitly argues that some of the most straightforward expressions of rock ‘n’ roll are still pertinent if they’re rendered with conviction and truthfulness. The album resonates.