Feelies "Crazy Rhythms"

I spent a fair amount of my college career (when I wasn’t drinking beer) with my nose buried in various fanzines and music mags. It was the early nineties and the “alterna-boom” had just exploded, with many veteran musicians of the punk, post-punk scene gaining both a bit of wide-spread acclaim and notoriety for the first time that resulted in many feature spreads and interviews. It was usually through these bits of required reading that the names of lesser-known, American groups were dropped in an effort to “spread the good-will” amongst the scene.

One such name-dropped band who this music-head came to love was a little New York by way of New Jersey combo called the Feelies who, in 1980, released one of the more original debuts ever, especially when surrounded by the punk/new wave scene that was currently going on at the time. Crazy Rhythms managed to both influence heaps of other musicians and gain accolades of critical acclaim that resulted in…you guessed it…minimal album sales. It probably didn’t help that, at the time, the Feelies didn’t much care to play live which, amongst the indie-circuit, can be a death knell.

I can’t say Crazy Rhythms is my favorite Feelies album. Truth be told, I’m of the opinion that their subsequent follow-up efforts, The Good Earth and Only Life, are far superior releases. To these ears, they both have more texture and better production which gives them a lusher, fuller sound than their predecessor had. That being said, I think it’s through that love of those two albums that I've been able to come and appreciate all of the positive aspects that Crazy Rhythms has to offer. Here are two:

The Feelies – “Forces At Work” (MP3)

The Feelies – “Moscow Nights” (MP3)