Stay Positive (album)
| Stay Positive | ||||
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| Studio album by The Hold Steady | ||||
| Released | 15 July 2008 | |||
| Genre | Indie rock, Rock Opera | |||
| Length | 43:48 | |||
| Label | Vagrant/Rough Trade | |||
| Producer | John Agnello | |||
| The Hold Steady chronology | ||||
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Stay Positive is the fourth studio album by The Hold Steady, released on July 15, 2008 through Vagrant Records. Vocalist/guitarist Craig Finn notes that the album is about "the idea of ageing gracefully [...] keeping going, perseverance [and] how to stay true to the ideals and ideas you had when you were younger." Keyboard player Franz Nicolay notes that the album is his favourite, stating that it features an "integrated, nuanced, less hectic distillation of [their earlier] sound." To date, Stay Positive is the last studio album to feature Nicolay, who departed from the band in early 2010 but returned in 2016.
On May 20, the album's first single, "Sequestered in Memphis", was released on the band's MySpace page and on iTunes. On June 9, the entire album was made available to stream on MySpace, and on June 18 the full album became available on iTunes. It was later released for the videogame Rock Band (via the Rock Band Network) on March 4, 2010.
The record entered the UK Album Chart at #15 on July 20, 2008, the third-highest new entry. It ranked #1 on the UK Indie Chart. In the U.S. it entered at #30 on the Billboard 200. The album was Alex Zane's record of the week on the XFM breakfast show. The song "Constructive Summer" was number 56 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2008.
Stay Positive has sold 88,000 copies as of April 2010
In an interview with Uncut, Craig Finn notes that he thought the album "should maybe look at the characters I’d been writing about on the previous three albums as they got a bit older, more adult with more adult problems." The title track in particular references several Hold Steady songs and characters from the previous albums, such as "Hornets! Hornets!", "Positive Jam", "Massive Nights" and "Sweet Payne", while relating them to the common theme of believing in the ideals of youth as you get older. The title track references hardcore punk bands Youth of Today, 7 Seconds, and Dillinger Four.
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