The Hold Steady Reissuing Album About ‘Aging Gracefully’

Indie rockers the Hold Steady will celebrate the 10^th anniversary of their fifth studio album, Heaven Is Whenever, a release that frontman Craig Finn has said is about the band “aging graceful,” with a very special double-album reissue that’ll arrive on black vinyl and limited edition colored vinyl on Nov. 27; pre-orders will be available beginning Monday, October 19 via theholdsteady.net. All pre-orders receive an exclusive instant grat download of the previously unreleased bonus track, “Separate Vacations.” In addition, the digital release will include six additional tracks, available exclusively at DSPs and streaming services.

Along with “Separate Vacations,” the newly remastered deluxe edition collects nine rare and previously unreleased bonus tracks as well as exclusive liner notes by Drive-By Truckers co-founding singer-songwriter-guitarist Patterson Hood.

“Heaven Is Whenever saw one of the most loved bands of this, then still-new century take a perceived stumble and face a small comeuppance. It happens,” Hood writes. “Many bands don’t survive it, much less come out the other side intact and possibly better than ever…A lesser band might have imploded. Lesser artists might have tried to continue on repeating a successful template that denied the real consequences of the machine they built. Instead they dug deep and pushed onward into a darker night of the soul.”

Produced by longtime collaborator Dean Baltulonis, the album represents the group’s first full-length following the temporary departure of keyboardist Franz Nicolay. Fueled by such singles as “Hurricane J,” “Rock Problems,” “The Weekenders” and “Barely Breathing,” the album made a top 5 debut on Billboard’s Top Alternative Albums chart and a top 10 debut on Top Rock Albums.

Not bad for an indie rock band with little support from commercial rock radio.