The hold is stable:: Open door policy [Positive Jams/Thirty Tigers]

The Hold Steady recorded their latest album, Open Door Policy, in Rhinebeck, New York, with producer Josh Kaufman and engineer D. James Goodwin. The LP was mostly written and recorded before the pandemic started, “but the songs and stories deal with power, wealth, mental health, technology, capitalism, consumerism and survival problems that worsened in 2020,” as frontman Craig Finn put it in a press release. The band’s previous album in 2019 was Thrashing Thru the Passion.

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Indigo Sparke:: echo [Sacred Bones]

Australian artist Indigo Sparke makes her debut with Echo. She co-produced the album with Adrianne Lenker from Big Thief and Andrew Sarlo, the band’s producer. Also, Big Thief’s James Krivchenia played on Echo’s “Baby” and “Colourblind”.

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Mr. Eazi:: Something else EP [Banku/emPawa Africa]

Together with his One Day You Will Understand EP, Nigerian Afropop star Eazi released new music with J Balvin, Nicki Minaj and Major Lazer last year. His new release, Something Else, is a five track EP while he is working on a third full-length record. The singer Xenia Manasseh is a guest on “Cherry” and the EP contains the previously released track “The Don”.

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Adeline Hotel:: Good timing [Ruination]

After last year’s Solid Love, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and guitarist Dan Knishkowy returns with another new album from Adeline Hotel. At Good Timing, Knishkowy focuses on fingerpicking acoustic guitar compositions. “In their casually improvised structure, these pieces flow like thoughts,” wrote Will Gottsegen in Pitchfork’s review of the album.

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