"Heavy Covenant" follows last month's lead single "Family Farm".

Lead vocalist Craig Finn says of the track, ""Heavy Covenant" is a song about travel, technology, and human connection. The song came out of two different music pieces that THS [The Hold Steady] piano/keyboardist Franz Nicolay brought in, and with the help of producer Josh Kaufman, we combined them. It came together quickly, and when our friends Stuart and Jordan came in and added the horns to the chorus it really seemed to bring it together. To us, this song is a great indication of where the band’s sound is at in 2021."

Open Door Policy will follow The Hold Steady's 2019 album Thrashing Thru The Passion, and was recorded with producer Josh Kaufman and engineer D. James Goodwin.

Finn says of their new album, "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."