Black Cats
Toilet Rats
Black Cats is the third full-length album by Minneapolis project Toilet Rats, released on June 26, 2026 via Steadfast Records and Sweet Cheetah Records. Spanning 14 songs in roughly 30 minutes, it expands the project’s established blend of synth pop, post-punk, new wave, and punk while keeping the scrappy, lo‑fi fun that defined earlier releases. Driven by fuzzed-out guitars, distorted bass, drum machines, and thick layers of synthesizers, the album folds in new textures—especially moody 1980s college-rock influences that nod to bands like The Wedding Present and early The Smiths—sitting comfortably alongside faster punk scorchers and new-wave dancefloor tracks.
The record’s tracklist (including Darkness, Bloodsuckers, I Was a Teenage Exorcist!, Crystal Lake (I Don’t Wanna Go To), Heart Emoji MPLS, Military Dad, Shimmy, Crash Out!, Utopia, Asteroid, Nuclear Reactor Meltdown, I Wanna Live (Afterall), Vampirella, and Wolfie) leans heavily into horror imagery, sci‑fi disaster scenarios, and cult-movie references. Yet critics emphasize that Black Cats “balances levity with vulnerability”: beneath the ghouls, vampires, reactors, and asteroids are songs about illness, uncertainty, friendship, and community, with cuts like Shimmy (mixed by Sean O’Keefe) addressing surviving a major illness and dancing with friends afterward, and Heart Emoji MPLS functioning as a love letter to Minneapolis for “showing up for each other” during a turbulent early 2026. Reviews highlight the album’s brisk pacing and comic-book feel—each short track like a vivid panel capturing a different anxiety or emotional state—and praise it as Toilet Rats’ most ambitious and emotionally resonant work to date, a life‑affirming, danceable record that finds joy and solidarity amid chaos.
Black Cats is the third full-length album by Minneapolis project Toilet Rats, released on June 26, 2026 via Steadfast Records and Sweet Cheetah Records. Spanning 14 songs in roughly 30 minutes, it expands the project’s established blend of synth pop, post-punk, new wave, and punk while keeping the scrappy, lo‑fi fun that defined earlier releases. Driven by fuzzed-out guitars, distorted bass, drum machines, and thick layers of synthesizers, the album folds in new textures—especially moody 1980s college-rock influences that nod to bands like The Wedding Present and early The Smiths—sitting comfortably alongside faster punk scorchers and new-wave dancefloor tracks.
The record’s tracklist (including Darkness, Bloodsuckers, I Was a Teenage Exorcist!, Crystal Lake (I Don’t Wanna Go To), Heart Emoji MPLS, Military Dad, Shimmy, Crash Out!, Utopia, Asteroid, Nuclear Reactor Meltdown, I Wanna Live (Afterall), Vampirella, and Wolfie) leans heavily into horror imagery, sci‑fi disaster scenarios, and cult-movie references. Yet critics emphasize that Black Cats “balances levity with vulnerability”: beneath the ghouls, vampires, reactors, and asteroids are songs about illness, uncertainty, friendship, and community, with cuts like Shimmy (mixed by Sean O’Keefe) addressing surviving a major illness and dancing with friends afterward, and Heart Emoji MPLS functioning as a love letter to Minneapolis for “showing up for each other” during a turbulent early 2026. Reviews highlight the album’s brisk pacing and comic-book feel—each short track like a vivid panel capturing a different anxiety or emotional state—and praise it as Toilet Rats’ most ambitious and emotionally resonant work to date, a life‑affirming, danceable record that finds joy and solidarity amid chaos.
Black Cats
Toilet Rats
Black Cats is the third full-length album by Minneapolis project Toilet Rats, released on June 26, 2026 via Steadfast Records and Sweet Cheetah Records. Spanning 14 songs in roughly 30 minutes, it expands the project’s established blend of synth pop, post-punk, new wave, and punk while keeping the scrappy, lo‑fi fun that defined earlier releases. Driven by fuzzed-out guitars, distorted bass, drum machines, and thick layers of synthesizers, the album folds in new textures—especially moody 1980s college-rock influences that nod to bands like The Wedding Present and early The Smiths—sitting comfortably alongside faster punk scorchers and new-wave dancefloor tracks.
The record’s tracklist (including Darkness, Bloodsuckers, I Was a Teenage Exorcist!, Crystal Lake (I Don’t Wanna Go To), Heart Emoji MPLS, Military Dad, Shimmy, Crash Out!, Utopia, Asteroid, Nuclear Reactor Meltdown, I Wanna Live (Afterall), Vampirella, and Wolfie) leans heavily into horror imagery, sci‑fi disaster scenarios, and cult-movie references. Yet critics emphasize that Black Cats “balances levity with vulnerability”: beneath the ghouls, vampires, reactors, and asteroids are songs about illness, uncertainty, friendship, and community, with cuts like Shimmy (mixed by Sean O’Keefe) addressing surviving a major illness and dancing with friends afterward, and Heart Emoji MPLS functioning as a love letter to Minneapolis for “showing up for each other” during a turbulent early 2026. Reviews highlight the album’s brisk pacing and comic-book feel—each short track like a vivid panel capturing a different anxiety or emotional state—and praise it as Toilet Rats’ most ambitious and emotionally resonant work to date, a life‑affirming, danceable record that finds joy and solidarity amid chaos.
Black Cats is the third full-length album by Minneapolis project Toilet Rats, released on June 26, 2026 via Steadfast Records and Sweet Cheetah Records. Spanning 14 songs in roughly 30 minutes, it expands the project’s established blend of synth pop, post-punk, new wave, and punk while keeping the scrappy, lo‑fi fun that defined earlier releases. Driven by fuzzed-out guitars, distorted bass, drum machines, and thick layers of synthesizers, the album folds in new textures—especially moody 1980s college-rock influences that nod to bands like The Wedding Present and early The Smiths—sitting comfortably alongside faster punk scorchers and new-wave dancefloor tracks.
The record’s tracklist (including Darkness, Bloodsuckers, I Was a Teenage Exorcist!, Crystal Lake (I Don’t Wanna Go To), Heart Emoji MPLS, Military Dad, Shimmy, Crash Out!, Utopia, Asteroid, Nuclear Reactor Meltdown, I Wanna Live (Afterall), Vampirella, and Wolfie) leans heavily into horror imagery, sci‑fi disaster scenarios, and cult-movie references. Yet critics emphasize that Black Cats “balances levity with vulnerability”: beneath the ghouls, vampires, reactors, and asteroids are songs about illness, uncertainty, friendship, and community, with cuts like Shimmy (mixed by Sean O’Keefe) addressing surviving a major illness and dancing with friends afterward, and Heart Emoji MPLS functioning as a love letter to Minneapolis for “showing up for each other” during a turbulent early 2026. Reviews highlight the album’s brisk pacing and comic-book feel—each short track like a vivid panel capturing a different anxiety or emotional state—and praise it as Toilet Rats’ most ambitious and emotionally resonant work to date, a life‑affirming, danceable record that finds joy and solidarity amid chaos.