The Hold Steady’s back cat is so strong and each album so individual that it could be convincingly argued that any of the three is their best to date. With their fourth full length and their second since leaving French Kiss for the loftier climes of Vagrant, Craig Finn and his merry band of hard drinking hard rockers up the ante even further than 2006’s Boys And Girls In America.

The E-Street Band ghost through the details repeatedly, from Franz Nicolay’s Roy Bittan-esque flourishes to Finn’s vocal delivery and lyrics, coming off like Springsteen’s The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle being rewritten by a Minneapolis punk. The instrumentation and song structures of Stay Positive see The Hold Steady really stretching themselves while highlights like ‘Sequestered In Memphis’ simultaneously channel the direct punkish energy of their debut.

Stay Positive’s message is that The Hold Steady aren’t happy to stand still and with each new step there are more and more reasons to love this band.

Mark Grassick