The Hold Steady have shared a third preview of their upcoming album ‘Open Door Policy’ – listen to ‘Spices’ below.

The new song follows last month’s album announcement and the band sharing first single ‘Family Farm’, as well as recent second track ‘Heavy Covenant’.

“‘Spices’ began with the intro riff that guitarist Tad Kubler brought in,” frontman Craig Finn said of the new song, “and it unfurled quickly when the band got together. It’s probably one of the heaviest songs on the record, but it achieves some levity with the horn section that arrives at the chorus.

“Like a number of others on the record, ‘Spices’ speaks of technology – the way texts, social media, DMs, etc. allow acquaintances to pop up into our lives and potentially disappear again just as quickly.”

Listen to ‘Spices’ below.

Discussing the meaning behind ‘Open Door Policy’, Finn added: “‘Open Door Policy’ was very much approached as an album vs. a collection of individual songs, and it feels like our most musically expansive record.

“This album was written and almost entirely recorded before the pandemic started, but the songs and stories explore power, wealth, mental health, technology, capitalism, consumerism, and survival – issues which have compounded in 2020.”

The band’s new album will follow their 2019 record ‘Thrashing Thru The Passion’. Reviewing that album, NME wrote: “As ever, The Hold Steady achieve their best work when their playing is loose. When the songs are filtered through the bottom of a shot glass. When they sound like the best bar band in the best bar you didn’t know about until the moment that you found yourself in it at 3am in the morning.

“On the basis of ‘Thrashing Thru The Passion’, that band are back. Great news for rock. Terrible for livers.”