Spin (p.100)
- 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.'"Entertainment Weekly (p.p.64)
- "[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 Kerrang (Magazine)
(p.50)
- "The Hold Steady have style and confidence to spare here, with the title-track even carrying a nod to their hardcore roots..." Q (Magazine)
(p.131)
- 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." Mojo (Publisher)
(p.100)
- 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..." 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..." | 
CD
