Star Tribune - A year's worth of top local CDs -- in 6 months
by Chris Riemenschneider

Friday, May 24, 2005

Barring another masterpiece this year, the best local album of 2005 was already on shelves by the end of January. So why wait until the end of December -- when top-10 lists are usually printed -- to give Low's "The Great Destroyer" the props it deserves?

Plenty of other solid efforts followed "Destroyer," too, making this annual semi-annual roundup especially relevant this year. There was Mint Condition's "Livin' the Luxury Brown," which debuted at No. 1 in Billboard's independent-albums chart despite the band's six-year hiatus. The Ashtray Hearts and Becky Schlegel also released CDs that proved to be worth several years' wait. And the only guy with a singing voice as high as Schlegel's, Jeff Hanson, put himself on the map locally with his second CD after he already had made a name for himself nationally.

Here's more about those albums and the other 10 best of the year so far, listed in alphabetical order:

Ashtray Hearts, "Perfect Halves" (Free Election) -- It takes a lot of restraint to make a six-member folk-rock band sound this lonely and barren yet gorgeous and warm. Flourishes of accordion, organ and horns surround front man Dan Richmond's obscure lyrics, which, if you read between the lines, are actually quite up-tempo compared to the music.