The Hold Steady Stay Positive [Bonus Tracks]

Ranked #36 in Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums Of 2008 -- "Brooklyn's finest bar band delivers an empathetic portrait of midlevel rockers in their 30s..."
3 stars out of 5 -- "'Constructive Summer' is the sort of people-powered anthem that made them 2005's can't miss band, and the title track meshes Finn's superspecific lyrics with echoes of Randy Newman's 'I Love L.A.'"
"[With] Finn's drolly rendered vocals and weird storytelling, which make the Hold Steady something you're certain you've never heard before." -- Grade: A
"Horn sections, intricately plucked guitar arpeggios, Cars-worthy synthesizer squelches and even a talk-box guitar solo all make an appearance..."
"The Hold Steady have style and confidence to spare here, with the title-track even carrying a nod to their hardcore roots..."
4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] real craft and dexterity is at work within The Hold Steady's songs, and on this record such things are plentiful in evidence....In Craig Finn The Hold Steady also have a properly great lyricist."
4 stars out of 5 -- "[W]ith STAY POSITIVE, The Hold Steady have intensified the precepts of their songs: the rockers are more rocking, the slow burns more brooding....The performances are both looser and more pointed..."
Ranked #6 in Mojo's "The 50 Best Albums Of 2008" -- "The Minneapolis via New York quintet became chart stars..."
Paste (magazine) (p.78) - "[T]hey've built upon the same monstrous guitar riffs, lyrical witticisms and Springsteeny rock chug they've purveyed since day one, upping the stakes with bigger choruses, even more self-referential/clever lyrical nuggets, and an everyman aesthetic..."