AOID

AOID is the debut album by American indie rock band Ratboys. It was released on 9 June 2015 on Topshelf Records.

AOID
Studio album by Ratboys
Released	June 9, 2015 (2015-06-09)
Studio	The Owlery, Chicago
Length	33:44
Label	Topshelf
Ratboys chronology
AOID (2015) GN (2017)

Background

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

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

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

Ratboys

• Julia Steiner – guitar, vocals
• Dave Sagan – guitar
• Will Lange – bass
• Pat Kennedy – drums

Technical

• Seth Engel – recording, mixing
• Matt Dewine – mastering