If there was ever a poster band for the college-rock aesthetic, it’s the Connells—if only for the fact that they always presented themselves as so unassumingly, well, collegiate. Founded in 1984 by University of North Carolina students Mike and David Connell, the core quintet realized early on that efforts to disguise their clean-cut averageness and adopt any sort of arty, self-important posturing could only lead to deception, silliness and, worse yet, R.E.M. comparisons.
Instead, the Raleigh-based outfit focused on the music, reeling off a string of cleverly composed, overtly Anglophilic jangle-rock gems that beg for wider acceptance. Of the 16 singles collected on Stone Cold Yesterday, only two (“’74-’75” and the title track) found their way outside college-rock circles, though things might’ve been different if it weren’t for a lengthy mismatch with TVT Records. But that matters little to the hardcore fans who continue to obsess over the sundry nuances of the band’s seven-album catalog. It’s tough to imagine what the Connells might’ve amounted to if Doug MacMillan hadn’t abandoned the faux-British accent and locked into the delicately soulful charms of his upper register shortly after the release of the band’s pre-TVT debut, 1985’s Darker Days. His vocals are as much an integral part of the group’s sound as Mike Connell’s innate pop sensibilities and fellow guitarist George Huntley’s seemingly endless supply of clever lead lines.
A perfect sampler for Connells newbies, the compilation largely favors the group’s four finest albums: 1987’s Boylan Heights, 1989’s Fun & Games, 1990’s One Simple Word and what’s arguably the band’s top-to-bottom masterpiece, 1993’s Ring. It also marks the acquisition of the Connells’ entire TVT catalog by The Bicycle Music Company, so one would hope that this is only the beginning of a series of reissues that will bring this undervalued outfit some belated recognition and respect. For the time being, this near-flawless collection portrays the Connells as an exemplary singles band, while advancing the heartening notion that even regular dudes can make some pretty remarkable music.
—Hobart Rowland
