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Apr 10, 2023The ten deft and devastating songs soundtracking this latest instalment flash by in a blur. It’s around the third play that things start falling into place.
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Mar 31, 2023If the Hold Steady sound a lot more polished and accomplished in 2023 than on 2004's Almost Killed Me, they're gained far more than they've lost in the course of their evolution, and The Price of Progress finds them writing and performing at the top of their game.
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Mar 30, 2023The Price of Progress as a whole prove The Hold Steady is in a great space, shifting, experimenting, and willing to try almost anything while still delivering their brand of well-worn, classic rock-influenced sound.
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UncutMar 29, 2023These songs fizz as freshly as if the group have only just discovered that combination of the post-punk pugnacity of prime Attractions with the acerbic disquisitions of a spoken-word Springsteen. [May 2023, p.28]
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Mar 29, 2023The Price of Progress proves that they haven’t forgotten what made them great.
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Mar 30, 2023The Hold Steady’s most musically adventurous collection of songs so far, pairing singer Craig Finn’s vivid storytelling with arrangements that go in some unexpected directions.
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Apr 3, 2023From the slowed tempo of the cinematic opener “Grand Junction” to the animated “Sixers”, they’ve crafted some of the most unpredictable and sweeping arrangements yet. This is an odd one, folks. And like much of Finn’s work, I’ll be racking my brain on its many idiosyncrasies for the foreseeable future.
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Apr 3, 2023Despite some murky production by Josh Kaufman of the Fruit Bats and Bonny Light Horseman, the Hold Steady turn these songs into weird, vivid snapshots.
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Mar 31, 2023The track [Understudies] underscores how, after 20 years, The Hold Steady is hardly a restrictive creative framework, while The Price of Progress reminds longtime fans why they continue to look forward to each album.
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Classic Rock MagazineApr 4, 2023Delving deeper into funk groove and psych textures, this expansive ninth record pays a flying visit to such old haunts, to find its hedonistic crowd now wracked with late-capitalist economic woes and struggling to stay rock'n'roll post-rehab. [May 2023, p.78]
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Mar 29, 2023It’s not quite as revitalized as Thrashing, but it’s also not as laid back as Open Door Policy. Finn’s stories, while often about addicts, aren’t quite as dark here as they are on his more melancholy solo albums.
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Mar 29, 2023‘The Price Of Progress’ is a perfectly functional Hold Steady record, no more and no less.