The Hold Steady announce new album ‘The Price of Progress’
American heartland rockers The Hold Steady are back for another new LP. The Price of Progress will be the New York band’s ninth studio effort, coming on the heels of 2021’s Open Door Policy.
“These are some of the most cinematic songs in The Hold Steady catalogue,” singer Craig Finn says in a statement, “and the record was a joy to make. I feel like we went somewhere we haven’t before, which is a very exciting thing for a band that is two decades into our career.”
Finn himself has stayed busy in between pauses in The Hold Steady’s touring schedule. Last year, Finn put out his fifth studio album, A Legacy of Rentals. Around the same time, he started a new podcast called That’s How I Remember It, focusing on the relationship between memory, cognition, and music.
Now, it’s back to The Hold Steady. To preview the new album, the band has shared its first single, ‘Sideways Skull’. More post-punk-adjacent than the band’s previous work, ‘Sideways Skull’ mostly sees Finn abandoning traditional singing for more spoken word prose. It’s discordant and fuzzy, but there are enough classic rock references to harken back to the band’s roots.
“’Sideways Skull’ is a rocking song about rock and rollers,” Finn says. “In this case, they’ve been taken out of the game for a bit of rest, but still keep their dreams alive as they discuss past glories. We loved the big sound of this when Tad Kubler brought it into the band, and the studio performance of it felt especially joyful. We’re happy to put this forth as a first look at The Price of Progress, and the album’s title even comes from this song.”
Check out the audio for ‘Sideways Skull’ down below. The Price of Progress is set for March 31st release.
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