Best local albums of the year (so far)

Do albums even matter anymore? All 10 records on this seventh annual semiannual best-of list suggest they do, at least around these parts. The Twin Cities’ record-making community remains strong. There are music schools here that still teach the art of album production. There are indie labels still putting out CDs, and publications and blogs reviewing them, and even FM radio stations playing them (one station, anyway). And we can always count on there being enough basements and too many frigid months when musicians have little else to do besides hole up and craft a masterpiece. We run this best-of list each June because it’s when the fruits of those winter-long labors ripen. We also run it…

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