• Record Label: Orchard
  • Release Date: Feb 19, 2021
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 8 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 8
  2. Negative: 1 out of 8
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  1. Feb 21, 2021
    1
    Would it kill them to give us a guitar solo? It's almost killing me to listen to this anticlimatic mix for a second time. Lots of missed opportunities in the name of trying some new or growing? Too many brains in the mix, less horns more guitars if I wanted this melodic crap I'd listen to local natives or some **** Let bobby drake and galen out of their cages and have tad crank up the damn amp.
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 21
  2. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. 80
    Open Door Policy is the album longtime fans have been waiting for. The lyrics are there and the music is there.
  2. Mar 8, 2021
    65
    The band neither seems content to sit back and play the hits nor to break the formula too much. Perhaps that ambivalence holds Open Door Policy from ranking among their best, but The Hold Steady clearly have more to say and do in their second act, and the record points to how rewarding the possibilities can be.
  3. Mar 2, 2021
    70
    While the album isn’t quite the overhaul that quote makes it out to be, there are enough twists to catch longtime fans off guard. Even with eight albums to their name, The Hold Steady continue to prove that consistency doesn’t mean going stale.