February 23, 2008 18:49

The Hold Steady finish new album

The Brooklyn boys look set to 'Stay Positive'

The Hold Steady have completed recording on their fourth album, tentatively titled ‘Stay Positive’.

The album sees the band include more diverse instrumentation alongside their bar-room rock, including mandolin, harpsichord, strings and horns.

Revealing the album’s likely title, frontman Craig Finn said: “It's probably going to be called ‘Stay Positive’, we can say tentatively.

"There's a song called ‘Stay Positive’ we've been playing live, and it was just something that's been kind of hanging around in my head a long time. I would say it's safe to say that's the name of the record.”

Crediting producer John Agnello with the more adventurous sound, guitarist Tad Kubler told Pitchfork: “In terms of fidelity or stereo range, I think John took a little different approach in the way we mixed it in terms of just using some hard pans and doing some things different, rather than just a compressed guitar rock record.”

The album still needs to be mixed and mastered - no release date has yet been announced.

Since releasing 2006’s ‘Boys And Girls In America’, the band have gone on to greater fame, including headlining NME’s Rock ’N’ Roll Riot Tour USA last year alongside Art Brut.

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