KEY POINTS:
Rating: * * * *
It's unfortunate the title track to New York rowdies the Hold Steady's fourth album is the weakest song on an otherwise cracking album. The obvious sentiment behind Stay Positive is silly and basic compared to the rest of the album which is overflowing with charming stories about hanging out boozing on top of water towers, and clever lines like "In barlight she looked alright, in daylight she looked desperate" from Sequestered In Memphis.
The Hold Steady sound like Bruce Springsteen meets late great 80s American noise rock band Husker Du. Or perhaps, like Bruce Hornsby and the Range playing as if their lives depended on it because Bob Mould from Husker Du was torturing them for playing such plodding pap? So while Constructive Summer spits and howls every now and then they strip things back to something pure and gentle, like on Lord, I'm Discouraged.
Stay Positive is a bold move forward from 2006's excellent Boys and Girls In America, with more instrumentation, including a harpsichord on One For The Cutters, more horns, and multiple part songs, most notably on 11-minute trilogy Ask Her For Adderall/Cheyenne Sunrise/Two Handed Handshake (during which they gloat about opening for the Rolling Stones).
With music as unbridled and joyous as this you don't need to be told to stay positive.
Scott Kara
