Crazy Rhythms is the debut studio album by American rock band the Feelies. It was released in the United Kingdom on February 29, 1980,[1] and in the United States in April 1980, through British record label Stiff. Its fusion of post-punk and jangle pop was influential on the forthcoming alternative rock genre, with R.E.M., among others, citing the album as an influence. Although it was not commercially successful initially, it has remained critically lauded in the decades since its release.
On the album, band member Glenn Mercer has said "The sound we were after was a reaction against the punk scene [...] Being a little older, we felt it had all been done before. We wanted the guitars to be cleaner, and we started experimenting with a lot of percussion."[2]
Release history
The first release on CD was in Germany and the United States in 1986. A&M Records released the album on CD in 1990 with a bonus track, a cover of The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black". The track was recorded in 1990 without Fier or DeNunzio.
Bar/None Records reissued Crazy Rhythms on September 8, 2009, while Domino Records reissued the album outside of the U.S. and Canada.
Although not a commercial success, Crazy Rhythms was critically acclaimed on release. Paul Du Noyer of NME said that the record was "a very good album. I think it might even be a great one." He observed that the band "sound like Jonathan Richman trying to sound like the Velvet Underground", as well as Talking Heads, but that "somehow the way they are so derivative is part of the Feelies' appeal". Du Noyer described the music as "a kind of cleanly suburban rock'n'roll which is simultaneously intense and simplistic" and that the band seemed like "boys next door" but "they're nothing of the sort".[13] In a five-star review in Sounds, Pete Silverton observed that for him, the album only worked when he listened to it alone, not with company, and that it blended "the drive of Richman's 'Roadrunner' and some of the tense meanderings of Television". He summed up the album as "all light and fun over driving but muted city beats – a little jazz here, a little Latin American there and virtually no rock and roll; most every rhythmic play you can hear on New York radio, topped by cool, calm and collected vocals".[14]David Hepworth, in Smash Hits, wrote that the band "have the power to really draw you into their strange little suburban world."[15]Melody Maker's James Truman was less enthused, stating that the band's aim was to achieve a balance of being "intellectual, neurotic cissy" and ironic "Good American", but that at times "Crazy Rhythms pushes too hard to get the balance right and falls uneasily between a send-up and a put-on, a masterpiece and an attractive, disposable novelty". Truman said that the album had "a fussier, more detailed sound than it needed", and concluded, "Conceptualists will love the Feelies ... I just wish they'd come on a little less coy and clever."[16]
In their retrospective review, The Guardian called Crazy Rhythms "one of those albums during whose course you hear the most exciting sound in music: things changing."[6]Rolling Stone branded it "a landmark of jangly, guitar-driven avant-pop, and its shimmering sound can still be heard in bands like R.E.M."[2]PopMatters wrote that the album "stands as a wildly inventive and influential record that stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the best music of the American post-punk era. With their very first album, The Feelies managed to speak directly to the zeitgeist of the American independent underground without becoming overexposed or repetitive."[9]Tiny Mix Tapes wrote, "Crazy Rhythms, released in April 1980 amongst a veritable shitstorm of like-minded groups, stands grinning madly at the top of the pile – a shining monument to new wave at its quirky best."[17]
Crazy Rhythms was ranked number 49 in Rolling Stone's list of the 100 best albums of the 1980s,[2] and number 69 on Pitchfork's list.[19] In 2020, Rolling Stone included Crazy Rhythms in their "80 Greatest albums of 1980" list.[20]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Bill Million and Glenn Mercer, except where indicated.
