All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Uncut

Staggeringly good.

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100

Slant Magazine

It is not only the Hold Steady's best record, but acts as a culmination of all of the ideas, stories, musical paths and character journeys that they've so pointedly led us down before.

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100

Entertainment Weekly

Damn if an already nearly perfect album doesn't, with these bonus tracks, gets a little better itself. [18 Jul 2008, p.64]

100

Delusions of Adequacy

Stay Positive is a true testament that good music will always prevail. One can only hope that a band like this will continue to make music for years and years to come because we desperately need it.

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Dot Music

They've resurrected with this, their fourth album, the seemingly outmoded concept that with enough nurturing and faith, a band - and by extension it's audience - can grow into a beautiful thing.

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Drowned In Sound

They turn critics into gibbering wrecks unable to write proper reviews and leave us forced to just string together our favourite lyrics like a damn teenage girl scribbles Tokio Hotel choruses onto her bed headboard. But, y’know. Hairier.

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New Musical Express

Stay Positive not only confirms The Hold Steady’s status as one of the best rock’n’roll bands in the world, but establishes them as one of its most important too.

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Los Angeles Times

The sound is more varied and lighter on its feet with touches of harpsichord and banjo but anchored by the Hold Steady's signature: thick, humid arena rock, a high-pressure system of cresting guitars and pianos that injects these dramas with tension and embraces all their contradictions and ambiguities.

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Filter

Self-referential, poetic, spoken-sung performances in dirty beer halls, Midwest anthems that make everyone raise those beers in the beer halls. [Summer 2008, p.92]

Pitchfork

While they continue to prove themselves a more convincing classic rock act than should be possible in 2008, there's a tension in this album's lyrics between old-fashioned storytelling and breaking down the fourth wall. Stay Positive is their mostly successful bid to have it both ways.

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MSN Consumer Guide (Robert Christgau)

'Stay Positive' nails the travails of the aging rock band harder than 'Start Me Up' because it's about fans, and 'Constructive Summer' craftily confuses different ways to get hammered.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

A record made for blasting and getting blasted, Stay Positive makes it easy to follow through on its title.

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Rolling Stone

The music is more rousing than ever; the power chords and hair-metal wanks spiked with singalong chants and new instrumental flavors.

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Prefix Magazine

Considering most of the album is spent describing what life’s like for the rest of us, it’s surprising Stay Positive ends on a relatively self-focused note, courtesy of album highlight “Slapped Actress.”

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Hartford Courant

Stay Positive is an optimistic record that continues Finn's search for a sense of place.

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Paste Magazine

Suffice to say, then, if you’ve enjoyed the increasingly accessible path The Hold Steady’s taken over the last four years--and, frankly, if you like raising beers, pumping fists and yelling out choice phrases, how could you not?--then you’ll find Stay Positive nearly flawless.

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musicOMH.com

If you know what's good for you, however, you'll drink the whole album in, because intelligently constructed and musically thrilling records like this are a rare, rare find.

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Observer Music Monthly

Reliability is the Hold Steady's calling card, and on Stay Positive they don't stray far from the tried-and-tested combination of orthodox guitar rock and gritty, observational lyrics.

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Billboard

Brooklyn's working class heroes have stepped up their musicality (harpsichord is featured on "One for the Cutters") and melodic balladry ("Lord, I'm Discouraged" is an aching prayer), while still providing their signature cacophonous anthems.

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Boston Globe

Ultimately, Stay Positive achieves the admirable feat of being a record you can listen closely to or rock out to, equally adaptable to late-night wallowing and the party at the water tower.

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The New York Times

Despite some subtle new touches --a harpsichord, a banjo, light strings--the sound proposes constancy.

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Tiny Mix Tapes

Stay Positive offers up plenty of reasons to let go and believe.

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The Guardian

At times, the bloodlust in Craig Finn's growl gets too thirsty. But it's the album's closing lyric - "Man, we make our own movies" - that reveals the secret of this band's special powers.

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Under The Radar

A rousing and contemplative work that's informed by contradictory sensations. [Fall 2008, p.81]

Mojo

Stay Positive has consistently stronger material than its preecessors and, perhaps more importantly, is sequenced to maximum efficacy. [Aug 2008, p.100]

Q Magazine

Stay Positive isn't so much of an instant gratification, but a record that reveals more with each listen. [Aug 2008, p.131]

No Ripcord

This is the band’s most mature and consistent record yet.

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PopMatters

While Stay Positive might find Finn in existential contemplation of his past, present and future, thankfully it doesn’t keep him away from his observational wisdom in recounting tales of hedonism, naivety, drugs and alcohol in small town America.

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Hot Press

As you might expect from a bunch of Springsteen-loving misfits, Stay Positive is delivered with a generous amount of their now trademark skewed cynicism.

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Village Voice

Though the result doesn't quite reach the rarefied heights of 2005's Separation Sunday or the following year's nearly equally great follow-up, Boys and Girls in America, it fits nicely alongside LCD Soundsystem's "Sound of Silver" and the National's "Boxer" as a poignant example of veteran artists maturing gracefully, capturing that feeling you get just after the peak, when you've started noticing the decline but haven't figured out what to do about it yet.

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Blender

Finn has been sharper and funnier before, and their fast-and-down-the-middle rock has gotten more experimental, which isn't the same as better. But it's still a pretty good way to spend 45 minutes. [Aug 2008, p.86]

cokemachineglow

The problem with Stay Positive is that all the great songs subtly exhibit a kind of fin-de-siècle exhaustion, while the obvious attempts to break out of the old ways fall flat.

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Spin

The Hold Steady are mellowing, and it doesn't really suit them.

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All Music Guide

Stay Positive is the most sophisticated and erudite THS have ever sounded, and that's a mixed blessing.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 83 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Les H gave it a5:
But for how heralded these guys are – constructive summer – a song compared to celebrated summer and springsteen-meets-husker by the tastemakers of the music world – this voice – this song – is basically dramarama. Its all dramarama. Hardly groundbreaking, and hardly worth the high praise – its good – lyrically maybe a bit smarter – but I’m willing to bet for all the elitist rock fans out there who praise hold steady – they wouldn’t dare give dramarama the nod. I don’t even like dramarama that much – I have the “best” of – as they were always compared to the ‘mats way back when – though really only ‘anything anything’ and ‘last cigarette’ floats my boat. Hold Steady good; but not 84 pfork, 85 metacritic good.

Archie S gave it a10:
Wow what an album!!! This has to be one of the best albums i've ever heard. Consistently good, no amazing! No duds, serious. If you like good old fashion rock n roll you'll like this. If you like music lyrically dense and quality, you'll like this. If you love music, you'll love this!!!

Steve S gave it a10:
THS come through with not only the best rock album of 2008, but one of the finest this century.

demos t gave it a9:
The Hold Steady has consistently hit the mark since Separation Sunday and Stay Positive is certainly no exception. The stories are rich and the melodies are more mature than previous albums. The Hold Steady is this generation's Springsteen, while casting a more realistic reflection of the time.

Guillaume B gave it a9:
The Hold Steady is why good old simple rocking goods, and then some, are still around. And they deserve a damn big round of applause for their work.

PJ B gave it a4:
I can't believe 4 publications gave this album a perfect score. Entertainment Weekly i can understand only because they know nothing and are run by the industry, but I am sick and tired of the British music press. They are always childish and quick to praise nearly any band as the greatest thing ever, but it seems this year they have really pulled out all the stops. If you look at almost any album in the best of 2008 list on metacritic, i would bet that one of the higher ratings is from a British mag (Uncut, Mojo, Q, The Guardian, the Observer). Welcome to Mali, London Zoo, Fed, Dear Science, For Emma Forever Ago, Fleet Foxes, and Dig Lazurus Dig ALL have perfect scores from one of these publications. How often do you see a perfect score from allmusic? Almost NEVER, and yet these sources have multiple perfect scores every year. I think metacritic should weigh these scores lower, because a perfect score obviously means less across the pond. Oh, and yeah, this Hold Steady album is a raging disappointment. Worse than their all three of their previous albums.

Andrew C gave it a9:
Let's agree these guys are good at one thing, old fashioned rocking. This isn't groundbreaking or anything incredibly different. I can always count on these guys for a great rock record and amazing lyrics. This is probably my favorite record they've released. Just too solid all the way through. No skippers! Great record!!

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