MINNEAPOLIS — At least half of the best albums out of Minnesota so far in 2022 were actually made in 2021 or even 2020. But as Eleganza frontman Brian Vanderwerf rhetorically asked about his band's long-finished new LP, "If we couldn't play the songs live, what would the point be?"
The Cactus Blossoms, Chastity Brown, Cloud Cult, Polica and Hippo Campus also all waited out COVID-19 lockdown before issuing their latest collections. Because, duh, they're touring bands.
Conversely, though, the other albums on this annual midyear best-of roundup are all by relative newcomers who seem to represent a COVID-era incubatory side to the Minnesota music scene that's waiting to burst.
