Honorable mentions just disappoint the unmentioned, so let's just say it was an unusually tough year to pick just one best local album--a good sign. With discs from (oh, hell) Trailer Trash, Grant Hart, Mint Condition, Lifter Puller, and others winning serious stereo time with critics nationwide, the slowest and sweetest burn of the past 12 months came from the slowest and sweetest burn of the past ten years, the indefatigable Hang Ups. The band's third full-length album, Second Story (Restless), was clearly a labor of love for producers Don Dixon and Mitch Easter, who are best known for hatching the classic that launched a thousand college bands, R.E.M.'s Murmur. This pair wrapped the gentle, subtle pop of the Hang Ups in a sound that's both dense and playful, wittily overdubbing a roaring crowd over the guitar solo on the Kinks-like "Pretty BA," then adding light, Sixties touches elsewhere, like the tender harpsichord on "Parkway." The band is still settling into a new lineup, and Restless botched the album's promotion by releasing the thing late--well after the band had toured. But we found ourselves obsessing over those harmonies all the same, without any help from hype.