The Hold Steady Open Door Policy LP

Open Door Policy is The Hold Steady's 8th studio album and will be released on February 19, 2021 via their own label, Positive Jams, in association with Thirty Tigers.

The band recorded Open Door Policy in two different sessions in the back half of 2019. Once again they teamed with producer Josh Kaufman and engineer Dan Goodwin, this time at the Clubhouse studio in upstate NY. Their intention was to create an album that worked as a grand piece, rather than a collection of songs. 2019 was an active year for The Hold Steady - their writing was consistent, and new songs were coming in pretty regularly. The recording process was creative, open and fun.

The band was pretty much done with the record by the time they played a few of the new songs in London the first week of March 2020, as the unease of the pandemic was setting in. Not long after they got back from London, NYC shut down and their 2020 shows were postponed. Over the next months, it became obvious that timing this album's release to specific weekend celebrations wouldn't be a possibility in the near future. But The Hold Steady was still excited to share it.

The songs on Open Door Policy are about power, wealth, & mental health. They're about technology, occupation, consumerism, freedom, fandom and escape. And although the album was written and recorded in 2019, the themes of this record seem to be underscored and highlighted by this year of virus and quarantine.

...[B]y focusing on bringing light and shade into the margins, the Hold Steady wound up with an album that feels vivid and alive; it's as if the songs themselves have a life outside of the recording.

Dark, ominous, but still marching forth with that same bar-rock passion, the Hold Steady feel more unified, making a place for each member within their music's newfound sprawl.