Crazy Rhythms

The Feelies

117 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		76%
4 star		14%
3 star		6%
2 star		3%
1 star		2%

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Randolph Fowler

Excellent remaster of overlooked classic

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2018

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The Feelies first album, Crazy Rhythms, is a sort of post-punk edgy power pop sounding affair with nine memorable tracks including my favorite, Moscow Nights. The album seems to have held up to the test of time as it still sounds fresh today. The remaster is excellent - one of the best I've heard on any album - and the sound is incredible.

3 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Awsome, unknown band.

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2020

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The song "Loveless Love" and the band appeared in the movie "Something Wild", but was left off the soundtrack. I had wondered about the song for many years. That song kind of haunted me. Then recently I watched the movie "Smithereens", which did credit them correctly and so I picked up the album. I don't know how a band who's music appeared in so many movies could remain so anonymous.

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Kindle Customer

a great record

Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2019

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This band's first two records are two of my all time favorites and they're very different from each other.

One person found this helpful

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Patrick R. Curren

This Has Held Up Well

Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2018

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Over time some albums reveal themselves as not as great as I considered them to be at release. This is still a gem.

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Benji Z

these guys are awesome. The first track is worth the vinyl

Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2017

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Yeah, these guys are awesome. The first track is worth the vinyl. A solid album. The vinyl pressing sounds clean and vibrant.

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DJ Bugaha

Arrived super fast!

Reviewed in the United States on October 5, 2017

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A classic! Arrived super fast!

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Emilio D. Gironda Jr.

Crazy Good

Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2013

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I always heard how good the Feelies, how influential, etc etc, but this album went beyond my expectations. Nerd rock with emotion, drive, feel and intelligence.

2 people found this helpful

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K. Balles

Pefect

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2012

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Saw them play a full set of this album at ATP in 2010. This is the one to get if you only ever hear one Feelies...

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Mr. Joel C. A. Cooney

The Album with the Perpertual Nervousness

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 7, 2012

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Look at the album cover for this album and tell me what you see. Four chalk white kids gathered in a row at the bottom of a pastel blue canvas ; neutral expressions on oval faces perched atop rail-thin necks; an assortment of "poindexter"-esque spectacles; haircuts so ostentatiously uncool they have to be intentional, replete with buttoned-up polo shirts, jumpers and tanktops. The very antithesis of rock'n'roll glamour - they might have called it "Nerd chic" had such a concept existed. An album cover couldn't better exemplify the music held within it; the only other sleeve that comes to mind is perhaps Guns'n'Roses' Appetite For Destruction . Is it any wonder that 14 years after its release, spiritual descendants Weezer would use a very similar motif for their own classic debut Weezer (The Blue Album) ?

Each of the original 9 tracks (there are a further 5 bonus tracks available when you buy the album) on this taut, jerky document of late 70's suburban New Jersey would be a classic on its own and, as a whole, between them they create one of the great un-acknowledged classics of its time, easily rivalling Talking Heads' Remain in Light for best US indie of 1980. The question has to be: how did they do it and why didn't I hear about this earlier?

One clue is in their sound. There's likely to be inevitable comparisons to Devo but this would be mistaken - they were more akin to a new wave "Kiss". Rather their contemporaries were less from Akron Ohio and more from the other side of the Atlantic; Scottish bands such as Joseph K , Orange Juice and The Fire Engines were true kindred spirits. By deliberately limiting the sonic palate, the band was free to expand to fill the space. Each song's roster consists almost entirely of the following elements: twin-interlocking guitars - often clean or complemented by the odd tremolo effect or overdrive - combining together often to form single droning chords; twin vocals with occasional harmonising - of a style now intimately associated with teenage emotional angst and release; finally, the percussion. This is where the band really stand out from their peers - the tom-heavy drum-kit (infamously sans all cymbals other than hi-hats) combines frequently with klaves and wood-blocks to create a poly-rhythmic beat that raises their sound far above the usual two-step polka that defines a huge amount of contemporaneous Punk, Hardcore and New Wave. Having said that, they chose to eschew the "dance" route of Liquid Liquid - rocking out was always the goal here.

Like the instrumentation, production is strictly limited - close micing of the kit (to prevent "wash"), entirely flat vocals and only the barest hint of natural room reverb lends the record a parched tone while at the same time not sounding "demo" or "lo-fi" (that was to come later). Clearly, the just wanted the unadorned sound of their instruments to sit at the front of the speakers, much like aforementioned cover-art.

It's almost impossible to choose highlights, but perhaps album opener "The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness" best encapsulates what makes their sound work - other tracks to investigate would be the title track and "Moscow Nights".

What isn't clear to me is why they haven't received the acclaim of other contemporaries, or indeed that of bands that were influenced by them (e.g. REM were big fans). Perhaps it was their short-lived nature - 2 albums in their original lifetime and not even with the same lineup. Maybe it was their deliberate avoidance of the NY scene (they mainly played in their native NJ). Whatever the reason, this album deserves re-discovery, particularly with rock music being in such dire straits at the moment.

4 people found this helpful

Billy Finch

New Wave Brilliance

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 26, 2009

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I confess until the reissue by Domino this year I had never heard of The Feelies.
Which is a shame because this is great. Very new wave, very percussive, very good.
There is a whiff of Talking Heads about it (never a bad thing) but also a hint of Joy Division, which may be due to the lack of cymbals on the drum kit. The Feelies stick to their musical agenda and in doing so create a unique, infectious sound.

3 people found this helpful

KASTRINAKIS ALEXANDROS

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2018

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No comments

Bill

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 10, 2015

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Great!

Daniel Margrain

'Minimilist' psyche-folk classic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 5, 2011

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Crazy Rhythms released in 1980, is a folk-rock/psychedelic classic. But if you are expecting a version of the Byrds you would be advised to steer clear. Whereas the folk-rock of the former was measured, and the sound full and warm, here it is icy, alienating and "processed" but also light-hearted in a Richman-esque kind of way. Guitars are strummed frantically amid pop melodies and nuerotic rhythms thus creating a musical tension that is actually closer to the Velvet Underground, at least aspirationally.

The Feelies minimilist approach encompasses bursts of psychedelic guitars, obsessive repetitions, nuerotic percussive patterns and hypnotic vocals. The playing is almost organic, spontaneous sounding and "amateurish" (at least on the surface), but nevertheless in truth technically brilliant. The structure of the songs are perfectly formed.

One person found this helpful

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