10 Most Underrated Indie Rock Albums Of 2020s (So Far)

10. The Hold Steady - Open Door Policy

If you're fond of being taken on a narrative journey crammed full of tragically funny and sometimes just plain old poignancy, then The Hold Steady have crafted another typically rich collection of musical tales just for you in 2020's Open Door Policy.

After finally rediscovering their mojo with 2019's Thundering Thru the Passion, it was always going to be a tall order to maintain such long-awaited momentum. But in the menacing riffs of Spices and electric Family Farm, there's a pace and urgency that grips you and refuses to let you rest early on.

It's in the stunning keyboard tinges scattered throughout the album in the likes of Lanyards, Heavy Covenant, and Hanover Camera that the true underrated qualities of this gem come out to play. Though, with Lanyards in particular feeling somewhat appropriately cinematic in its appraisal of how the world of show can chew up and spit out the hopeful.

Mixing in tales of isolation and a focus on mental health issues too, Craig Finn's battered and hardened-yet-soulful tones have arguably never felt as under-appreciated as they were over the course of the American band's most recent collection of moving symphonies.