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Stay Positive | 
 enlarge | Artist: The Hold Steady
Label: Vagrant Records
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
Buy New: $10.28
You Save: $3.70 (26%)
New (34) Used (3) from $10.28
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 351
Format: Extra Tracks
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 501
UPC: 601091050129
EAN: 0601091050129
ASIN: B0019T9F9S
Release Date: July 15, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW Factory Sealed - Ready to be shipped within 24 hrs from California - Average 5 workdays delivery time - Excellent customer service - Buy with confidence!
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| Tracks:
| • | Constructive Summer | | • | Sequestered in Memphis | | • | One for the Cutters | | • | Navy Sheets | | • | Lord, I m Discouraged | | • | Yeah Sapphire | | • | Both Crosses | | • | Stay Positive | | • | Magazines | | • | Joke About Jamaica | | • | Slapped Actress |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk
The Hold Steady's ascent and eventual breakthrough with 2006's Boys & Girls in America was never pre-ordained. If anything they did it without the tastemakers' consent. Their shtick is old-fashioned through and through, beginning with Thin Lizzy and ending with Bruce Springsteen, performed by men advanced enough to have experienced those touchstones first or second hand. And look at them--not exactly The Strokes, are they? But it was precisely their enthusiastic unoriginality, the fact that the cliches were piled on so thick and so fast, that they triumphed. And placed next to that unapologetically feel good record, that Stay Positive sounds so immediately brighter and more muscular is undoubtedly a great sign. Production is really cranked up--see the horns wedged into "Sequestered in Memphis", the REM mandolin texturing of "Both Crosses" and the surprising harpsichord flagrancy of "One for the Cutters". They're clearly determined to not be so easily pegged this time around, though admittedly they never exactly go that far off-piste. "Our songs are sing-along songs," announced Craig Finn semi-helpfully, and though the spirit is right, with such a conversational lyrical style that is rarely the case. It's more about the rock gestures and knowing when to punch the air. And there are instances aplenty, from the Pete Townsend-esque windmill power-chords in "Constructive Summer", to the overblown solo in "Lord I'm Discouraged" that is so "November Rain" it's practically going through Stephanie Seymour's trash (those not watching MTV in the mid-90s, hit Youtube). --James Berry
Product Description
Limited edition packaging (50,000) includes 3 bonus tracks:
Bonus Tracks
1.Ask Her for Adderall
2.Cheyenne Sunrise
3. Two Handed Handshake
Album Description
Stay Positive is the fourth studio album from The Hold Steady and follows their hugely popular 2006 release Girls And Boys In America. Working once again with producer John Agnello (Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr.), the album sees the band continue in the same direction their previous release took them, mixing classic bar-room style Rock with Craig Finn's half spoken/half sung lyrical tales of drinking, partying and love. Features the single 'Sequestered In Memphis'.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 This will stay on your CD changer for a while August 18, 2008
I'm an old guy, so holding steady in general is fine for me, and the tracks on this are consistently sound, non-repetitious and combine rock with melody. Not head-bangingly hard nor soft - that in-between spot that few bands achieve these days. I don't do thrash nor do I like working hard to pick out the lyric, so I count this as one of my best recent buys. Check the band out on YouTube and see whether you agree - before you buy!
 This band deserves attention .... August 13, 2008
I am a genuine Hold Steady fan. The Hold Steady remind me of pre-Born-to-Run-Springsteen--a torrent of words and attitude. I fell in love with the group after hearing their second album, Separation Sunday. When I first heard "Your Little Hoodrat Friend," it felt like a "first kiss." I have liked everything they have done since (and before).
Even after hearing the songs on Stay Positive just a few times I can safely say that this album is as good as anything they've released so far. After hearing them a few more times, I wager some songs may turn out to be even better.
Stay Positive August 13, 2008
Every track is enjoyable in its own way. Not as good, in my opinion, as their last album Boys and Girls of America but still great CD for anywhere from the car to a bonfire.
Not Available thru Amazon? August 11, 2008
Why not? Since it wasn't available in CD format thru Amazon, I purchased it on iTunes.
 Not their best work August 8, 2008
I love the Hold Steady. "Boys and Girls in America" is one of the best albums I've ever heard. That said, "Stay Positive" is testing my ability to do just that. The album certainly has a lot of redeeming moments, but overall it doesn't quite cut it. It's stripped down, but in a bad way. Gone is the raw intensity and "get off your a$$" riffs that make their previous albums so memorable. This one is just a little too overproduced, and not quite genuine enough. Boys and Girls makes our high school and college drug and induced adventures and antics sound like the dramatic and meaningful experiences that they felt like at the time. Stay Positive tries to do the same, but its corniness is making me wonder if I need to grow up.
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