In case you hadn’t been able to surmise from all the coverage it received in various places, including this one, the Connecticut music scene had a fantastic year for new music. It wasn’t just the quantity either. While there were literally hundreds of albums, EPs, and singles to take in, the overall quality of music flowing from the Nutmeg State was top notch, as great as it’s ever been. So where to begin when trying to find some of the best of the best?
It could easily be argued that music is the most subjective artistic medium in the world. One person’s junk is another’s treasure, as the saying goes. But we decided to do some listening for you (OK, a lot of listening) and below you’ll find in alphabetical order the 20 essential albums — and some honorable mentions — that should be the very first to reach for if anyone asks you what some of the best Connecticut music was in 2018. (Click on the artist titles to sample or buy the albums).
Hartford’s Anne:Gogh attacks hip-hop in a similar fashion that an acid jazz player goes at his or her craft – with a reckless abandon and an open contempt for the norms and morays of the genre. There are elements of the avant-garde that run throughout this record like little streams crisscrossing a map. In the course of eight tracks Anne:Gogh is rapping over everything from house beats to a fairly metal-like guitar riff. Yet on every track her relaxed, almost hypnotic delivery finds the perfect spaces to float and flow. Listen to our podcast with Anne:Gogh here.
One of the biggest names to ever come out of the Connecticut hip-hop scene, New London’s Apathy returned in 2018 with one of his most biting releases to date. Apathy pulls no punches here, smacking the listener from track one with vitriolic rhymes and powerful messages thinly veiled in a shroud of mysticism, esotericism and Freemasonry (of which he’s a proud card-carrying member). Listening to tracks such as “The Order” and “Hypnosis” truly feels like you’re being given a look behind a curtain that few are allowed. Apathy has also once again culled together an impressive list of contributors featuring some of the biggest names in Northeast hip-hop, including Pharoahe Monch, Celph Titled, and M.O.P., among others. Six full-length albums into an impressive career and Apathy is clearly still at the top of the pyramid.
Hartford-area atmospheric rock band Audio Jane turned a lot of heads with its 2017 album “Naïve.” It was a landmark release for a band that was finally rounding into form on a lot of different levels. Anyone worried that the band wouldn’t be able to at least match its songwriting prowess on the follow-up release “Letters” can rest easy. Led by the sultry and often spellbinding vocals of front woman Sarah Pech and a full canvas of gorgeously emotive songs, Audio Jane has pieced together an album equal parts powerful and languid. There’s a certain pop aesthetic to various tracks that lends an often earthy feel to the whole thing, while being balanced out by a number of seductive songs that tend to wrap themselves around the listener like a warm lover on a cold night. Few albums from 2018 will feel as inviting and yet as full of secrets.
Belle of the Fall, the Litchfield County indie-folk duo of Tracy Walton and Julia Autumn Ford, started as two planets sort of orbiting each other before finally colliding in a brilliant explosion of ‘60s and ‘70s-inspired pop-folk on its newest release, “Rise Up.” Walton had spent a couple decades as both an accomplished bassist and producer with a string of solo records, while Ford was the young up-and-comer with the amazing voice when they decided to tour together to Austin, Texas, and back a few years ago. When they finally decided to stop splitting sets and officially perform as a duo, their first foray into writing was excellent, but clearly two artists still writing solo songs. On this album Belle of the Fall can finally say it has discovered its collective sound — one filled with sugary melodies, rich harmonies and enough catchy hooks to keep even the most militant of folk music fans engaged from start to finish.
The Brazen Youth: Primitive Initiative
How a band with members so young can write music that is so mature beyond their years is one of the great mysteries of the musical world. Lyme’s The Brazen Youth is Connecticut’s version of that elusive truth. Featuring members not yet old enough to legally purchase alcohol, this powerful trio has once again emerged with an album so unbelievably rich in both songwriting and production that it’s simply hard to comprehend at certain turns. “Primitive Initiative” feels more focused than previous releases, yet more adventurous as well. Taking cues from an array of indie-rock influences, The Brazen Youth certainly isn’t afraid to put its own spin on a genre that can grow stale quickly for those not constantly immersed in it. It’s a supple, textured collection of songs that reveals more and more layers of itself with each subsequent listen, and multiple listens are absolutely encouraged.
Brian Dolzani will be the first person to tell you that he’s been putting out records for a long time. His first full-length album hit the streets in 2002 and since then a string of releases has shown him to be one of the hardest working musicians in the state. However, few musicians with as many miles logged on the road and as many stages conquered as Dolzani can truly say they are still writing and recording their best material. Dolzani once again outdid himself in 2018 with his newest album: “Horse.” While he is clearly a child of the Farm Aid scene — taking sonic cues from such legends as festival founders Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp — Dolzani is careful to weave his influences into his own voice. He has taken his experiences traversing the country and implanted them on this album, complete with enough dusty back roads and heartfelt storytelling to make any Americana fan smile.
No one should ever question whether Connecticut has a vibrant metal scene. One of the more promising acts to rise from the seedy underbelly of Connecticut music is New Haven’s Entierro. In 2018 we finally saw the release of the band’s debut full-length album after two promising EPs over a roughly four-year stretch. Mixing in elements of doom and thrash metal to a cacophonous array of classic metal aesthetics, Entierro simultaneously hearkens back to a golden age of the genre while continuing to be one of the local acts helping to propel it forward. It’s an album that’s as heavy as a steamroller exploding through a brick wall at certain turns, yet filled with amazingly catchy riffs and towering vocals. Metal is clearly an acquired taste, but for those who’ve acquired it Entierro should be your next pit stop.
Meriden outfit Farewood is the Connecticut music scene’s version of the mythical phoenix that rises from the proverbial dead every six years to deliver us all something completely enthralling. This time around it’s quite possibly the band’s best release to date: “Under Burning Sun.” The Farewood sound is one built upon two separate yet interwoven keystones — the intoxicating vocals of front woman Leah Lorenzo, and the surgical precision of guitarist Lou Lorenzo. The songwriting husband-and-wife duo has once again concocted an album of atmospheric alt-rock that simply latches on like a greedy lover from the first few notes and just never lets go. The story behind this album — and the fact that the Lorenzos almost chose not to release it at all because of how personal it was to them — just adds an extra element of sonic folklore to it all. Fans of alt rock that’s both dreamy and driving should find a lot to love here.
Goodnight Blue Moon: Dawning Dream
New Haven’s long-running indie-folk outfit Goodnight Blue Moon is a living testament to the adage that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither are career-defining, genre-bending albums. When you run seven members deep, you’re bound to run up against things like weddings, babies and new band members over time. However, after a string of personal triumphs and tragedies it was time for Goodnight Blue Moon to get back on the horse and finally ride out of the studio with the full-length follow up so many were eager for. GNBM certainly didn’t disappoint. “Dawning Dream” may lean slightly further away from some of the more down-home, foot-stomping elements of earlier releases, but this is still quintessential Americana draped delicately in indie-rock aesthetics. Equal parts reflective and boisterous, “Dawning Dream” pulls from a cavalcade of influences steeped in New England folkloric traditions all while pushing their sound to new and refreshing heights.
Who says punk rock can’t be fun? Certainly not Jacques Le Coque as it burns its way through this newest collection of extremely catchy, head-bopping numbers. The Stamford four-piece has always leaned toward punk’s more pop-friendly side, eschewing the snarl and sneer for a rattling garage rock-influenced sound. The band’s third full-length album “Positively…” sees it welcome an even more sophisticated take on the punk genre. This time around they’re taking the whole thing for a trip down memory lane, back to a time when everything that wasn’t popular was happily considered rock ‘n’ roll. Fans of everything from The Rolling Stones to The Buzzcocks and The Clash will find some nugget of rock nostalgia happily buried inside a ton of memorable hooks.
Jonathan Something: Outlandish Poetica
Hailing from Brooklyn (Connecticut, not New York), the Baroque-pop outfit known as Jonathan Something released one of the most unexpected albums of 2018. Mixing a vast array of influences into a perfect storm of memorable songwriting and exceptional production, multi-instrumentalist and mastermind Jon Searles firmly cemented himself as a sonic force to be reckoned with from this point forward. With a penchant for pop sensibilities and one foot firmly planted somewhere in the hazy, gray area between freak folk and ‘60s rock, Searles drives this album to absolute orchestral heights at certain points and yet a familiar intimacy at other turns. Searles also clearly has a sense of humor (or charming self-loathing) as the opening number tells the tale of a dream in which Larry Bird and friends beat and rob him. If that doesn’t intrigue you even the slightest bit then nothing will. Listen to our podcast with Jon Searles here.
Possibly the longest-running act, and most underappreciated, on this list is Landing, whose career just cracked the double decade mark earlier this year. When you spend 20 years making tripped out, fuzzy psych rock records though, you aren’t necessarily playing music for the masses. Landing returned in 2018 with an album that, admittedly by the band themselves, was more focused and precise than some of its previous efforts. That’s not to say the Stafford Springs-based act is suddenly writing radio-friendly pop tunes. On the contrary, while Landing has placed greater emphasis on stretching its songwriting palette to include whispered, acoustic interludes, for example, this album still drops the acid on more than one occasion and the resulting trip is equally as gorgeous as it is haunting. Listen to our podcast with Landing here.
Daphne Lee Martin: Scared Fearless
Few artists have taken such a winding path with their sound over the last decade as New London’s Daphne Lee Martin. Going back to her days when she had a full-time backing band — Raise The Rent — Martin was pure Americana through and through. Over the course of her three previous albums Martin’s sound started drifting further into indie rock territory as she experimented with and implemented a wide array of influences. With her newest release “Scared Fearless,” Martin has apparently found that sweet spot between her dusty roots and her indie wanderings. The result is arguably Martin’s best release to date. Pulling in alt country and folk sensibilities and coating them in enough indie aesthetics, Martin has somehow made an Americana-laced record wholly accessible to even someone whose stomach churns at the sight of cowboy boots.
For the second year in a row New Haven psych-rock stalwarts Mountain Movers made waves with an album’s worth of semi-lucid sonic adventures. “Pink Skies” is less a set of songs and more a meandering trip down a lazy river of audio psychedelics. Never afraid to crank it to ‘11’ and drench everything in as many fuzzed out tones as possible, Mountain Movers also finds itself taking the occasional mellow (yet spacey) detour. Few bands can cram so much sound into such a tight space and not make it sound like a sloppy mess, but with “Pink Skies,” Mountain Movers has again proven its expertise in controlled chaos. Music fans who like to partake in deep drags of ‘60s acid/psych rock will find a lot to love about this strain.
Phat A$tronaut: The Fifth Dimension
One of the most exciting debuts in 2018 came from the funky New Haven-based collective known as Phat A$tronaut. It should come as no surprise that “The Fifth Dimension was also one of the most eclectic releases of the year. With members who share time in other outfits across the state that range from hip-hop to death metal it makes perfect sense that this band stretches the boundaries of almost every genre it touches. Deftly weaving together a tapestry of hip-hop, funk, jazz, R&B, and classic soul, Phat A$tronaut creates music that is experimental in nature and yet downright danceable and party-friendly at its core. These are expertly crafted jams that showcase the group’s amazing musicianship, as well as the vocal/lyrical talents of front man Chad Browne-Springer. It may just be the perfect album for both audiophiles and casual listeners alike, and it’s pretty much guaranteed to liven up any social gathering. Listen to our podcast with Phat A$tronaut here.
If Kerri Powers has written and recorded an album in any given year there’s a pretty good chance it’s going to wind up on several lists just like this one. Powers is becoming a veritable powerhouse in the Americana/alt country/indie folk world, and each of her releases is met with critical acclaim from literally all over the country. It’s thoroughly justified, and “Starseeds” is no exception, as Powers continues to meld her version of the blues with her inherent folk singer’s sincerity. Powers is also a master storyteller, and that ability is once again on display here with relatable and heartfelt musings. Every Kerri Powers album has held up well over time and is worthy of multiple re-visits. However, “Starseeds” may very well be the best of the bunch.
What happens when an artist, who spends the first part of his career as an accomplished side man and producer, finally steps out into the spotlight on his own? In this case the result is the exceptional debut album from the man simply known as Rudy. Gary “Rudy” Nolan is a well-known figure in the Connecticut hip-hop scene having worked with an exorbitant number of artists. His guitar, songwriting and production skills have been making other artists look good for a long time. On “By My Lonesome,” Rudy is able to finally spread his wings under his own moniker and the result is a truly unique take on the hip hop genre. Blending ambient soundscapes with amiable beats and almost robotic-like vocals, Rudy delivers an album that clearly wants to live somewhere among its pop brethren. Yet it simply isn’t allowed to visit for long as Rudy keeps pulling it back into more esoteric territory. It’s a fascinating push-and-pull from note one.
After spending a year dropping various singles, New Haven’s RYXNO finally put it all together in 2018 and gifted us with its debut full-length “She Called.” The four singles released between April 2017 and April 2018 would all wind up on the album, giving us little peeks behind its cacophonous curtain. The end result was even better than expected as RYXNO did its best to channel its punk, post-punk and alt rock forefathers. It’s an album that has no problem changing faces at the drop of hat, shifting from catchy pop-punk theatrics to raucous sonic explosions. While the band never takes itself too seriously (i.e. the lyrics to the track “All My Friends” sound like something straight from The Dead Milkmen catalogue) RYXNO somehow still conveys a sense of power and confidence in its sound that all too many punk-leaning bands lack these days. There’s something extra alluring about a band that plays it a little dangerous and doesn’t mind teasing you about it.
Rarely has an album that is seemingly so layered and so diverse in styles sounded so cohesive and so beautifully orchestrated as this one: 2018 was a banner year in Connecticut for anything falling under the vast emo/indie pop banner. The best release of the lot was “Dream Speed.: Jake Shaker, the mastermind behind skating, truly hit his stride as a songwriter with this release, often blending funk and soul leanings with all things indie – folk, rock, and pop. The end result is a dreamy cavalcade of highly textured songs that become fairly addictive after only one listen. What makes this all the more impressive is that Shaker recorded the entire album by himself, excluding some credited help on the vocals. This album is highly recommended for anyone looking for a constant reminder that the warmth of a summer sun is eventually just around the corner.
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Tiny Ocean: Sometimes You’re Right
Sometimes the best gifts are wrapped in the most unexpected of packages. Tiny Ocean had given small glimpses at the greatness that was to come, but just how great its debut full-length album was going to be couldn’t have been accurately predicted by most. Taking alt country and Americana and draping it in a supple indie noir tapestry, Tiny Ocean completely knocked it out of the park. Both lyrically and vocally, front woman Kierstin Sieser delivers a biting performance seething with a brooding and emotive edge. Her band mates, meanwhile, create sonic landscapes both pastoral and mysterious that allow Sieser’s stories to play out with aplomb. It’s the type of album best listened to traveling down a dark road to nowhere in the middle of the night. Just keep your foot on the gas and let Tiny Ocean be your soundtrack. You’ll land where you’re supposed to eventually.
Honorable mentions
Lyon Street Fire: Lyon Street Fire
Jake Kulak: Get Faded and Go
Pat Stone & The Dirty Boots: Long Way Home
Plywood Cowboy: Blue Skies
Jeff Przech: Jeff Przech & The Outfit
Queen Moo: Mean Well (listen to our podcast with Queen Moo here.)
Sean Rubin: everybody shares a name
The Shellye Valauskas Experience: History of Panic
Tetramer: Death Of Karma
