By Patrick Ferrucci, Register Entertainment Editor

What: We here at Weekend have to admit that sometimes it’s quite difficult finding 10 records worthy of being on our annual list of the best local albums of the year. Don’t get us wrong, each year brings us some great local music, but a lot of times there’s about six killer works, and then it’s all about picking four discs from a pile of just-OK records. That is not the case this year. In 2008, we’re leaving off several high-quality local CDs. Really. And we’re not just talking about good albums, but ones that can hang with any national release. But, this list needs to be only 10, so tough decisions have to be made. That’s what we’re paid to do. So with all due respect to Quiet Life, They and the Children, Steve Mednick, the Mercy Choir and many more that we don’t have room to mention, here are our 10 best local records of 2008:

- "Re-Arrange Us," Mates of State — So good that it earned the No. 15 spot on our best records of 2008 list, "Re-Arrange Us" is the perfect album to start this off with. The Stratford-based Mates of State changes up its organ-and-drums paradigm a bit by adding instrumentation, but the songs are still absolutely killer.

- "Let’s Open Up The Chest," The Mountain Movers — Anyone who reads Weekend knows that we absolutely adore this New Haven band’s debut album. "Let’s Open Up The Chest" is almost as good, and that’s saying a lot. The Movers’ brand of horn-infused pop just makes us giddy.

- "The Aviary," Jonny Rodgers — "The Aviary" almost deserves a special notation this year. Not in a very long time has a local artist tried something so ambitious, yet Mighty Purple guitarist Jonny Rodgers nails it. This is a beautiful, fragile and consistently challenging work of nontraditional rock music. Think classical meets Elliot Smith.

- "Climb Yourself Up," Ponybird — We’ve mentioned it before, but we here at Weekend just love this EP. Over the course of five songs, New Haven singer/songwriter Jennifer Dauphinais uses slight percussion and haunting harmonies to make a beautiful Appalachian folk work.

- "Waltzing Through Quicksand," Frank Critelli — It’s easy for us here in the Elm City to take Frank Critelli for granted. He plays out all the time, and releases quality albums at least once a year. But we challenge you to find a more consistent or rewarding songwriter around here. Frank knows what he’s doing, and it always shows.

- "Box It Up," The Shellye Valauskas Experience — It took a long time to actually finish, but this five-song EP proves once again that Shellye does power pop just as well anyone, and guitarist/co-songwriter Dean Falcone knows how to produce it. Comparisons to folks like Julianna Hatfield make sense, but this EP is far better than Julianna’s 2008 record. Seriously.

- "New Hard Times," The Rabble Rousers — We weren’t here when Bill Collins first relocated from the West Coast and began making punk-inspired rockabilly in New Haven, but we certainly remember the late, great Swaggerts. And let’s just say that "New Hard Times," a collection of electric folk songs, punky tunes that Billy Bragg would have liked to have written, is right on the money.

- "Cloak of Nouns and Loss," M.T. Bearington — There’s just something about Matt Thomas’ songwriting ability. This is an album of music mostly done by just him. It takes plenty of chances and leaves no stone unturned. At times it’s psychedelic pop, at others it’s folk and it’s sometimes rock. But Thomas always comes through, and his singular vision is evident throughout. Bon Iver is getting lots of end-of-the-year love in 2008; we challenge you to listen to Bon Iver and Thomas back to back and tell us which one is better.

- "Now Or Heaven," The Broken West — Yes, The Broken West formed and still lives out in Los Angeles, but the band features Branford native Dan Iead on guitar and this disc deserves a mention in any end-of-the-year list. It just barely missed making our top 20 of 2008. The guys took a lot of chances on this one, trading in their rootsy sound for a streamlined work, and with repeated listens, it truly pays off. Continued...

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- "Up With The Sun," Titles — Three records on this list were in heavy consideration for our best-of-2008 piece. Consider Titles’ "Up With The Sun" the 21st best album of 2008. We wanted to list it, but just couldn’t take Guns N’ Roses off since it took only 15 years to get "Chinese Democracy." Look, Titles doesn’t reinvent the wheel on this album, but it’s seriously a great work of a band that truly came in to its own at the time. Brad Amorosino wrote his best batch of songs yet, and the band developed them perfectly. It’s truly outstanding and hasn’t left heavy rotation at Weekend’s house since it came out in May.

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