Crazy Rhythms

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."{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-best-albums-of-the-eighties-150477/the-feelies-crazy-rhythms-67284/ |title=100 Best Albums of the Eighties – The Feelies, 'Crazy Rhythms' |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=November 16, 1989 |accessdate=February 1, 2013}}

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.

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/crazy-rhythms-mw0000189951 |title=Crazy Rhythms – The Feelies |publisher=AllMusic |accessdate=February 1, 2013 |last=Raggett |first=Ned}}

| rev2 = The A.V. Club

| rev2score = A{{cite web |url=https://www.avclub.com/the-feelies-crazy-rhythms-the-good-earth-1798206909 |title=The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms / The Good Earth |work=The A.V. Club |date=September 15, 2009 |access-date=February 1, 2013 |last=Phipps |first=Keith}}

| rev3 = Christgau's Record Guide

| rev3score = A−{{cite book |chapter=The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms |chapter-url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_album.php?id=3606 |accessdate=February 1, 2013 |title=Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s |title-link=Christgau's Record Guide: The '80s |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau |publisher=Pantheon Books |year=1990 |isbn=0-679-73015-X}}

| rev4 = The Guardian

| rev4score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2009/oct/22/feelies-crazy-rhythms-reissue-review |title=The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms |work=The Guardian |date=October 22, 2009 |accessdate=February 24, 2012 |last=Hann |first=Michael}}

| rev5 = Mojo

| rev5score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine |title=The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms |magazine=Mojo |issue=192 |date=November 2009 |last=Segal |first=Victoria |page=110}}

| rev6 = Pitchfork

| rev6score = 9.1/10{{cite web |url=http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13403-crazy-rhythms-the-good-earth/ |title=The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms / The Good Earth |work=Pitchfork |date=September 14, 2009 |accessdate=February 1, 2013 |last=Powell |first=Mike}}

| rev7 = PopMatters

| rev7score = 9/10{{cite web |url=https://www.popmatters.com/111056-the-feelies-crazy-rhythms-the-good-earth-2496081206.html |title=The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms / The Good Earth |work=PopMatters |date=September 23, 2009 |accessdate=February 1, 2013 |last=Carson |first=Craig}}

| rev8 = Rolling Stone

| rev8score = {{Rating|4.5|5}}{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/29821177/review/29951397/crazy_rhythms |title=The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=September 8, 2009 |accessdate=February 1, 2013 |last=Sheffield |first=Rob |author-link=Rob Sheffield |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090912095457/http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/29821177/review/29951397/crazy_rhythms |archive-date=September 12, 2009 |url-status=dead}}

| rev9 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev9score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite book |chapter=The Feelies |last=Considine |first=J. D. |author-link=J. D. Considine |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor1-link=Nathan Brackett |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |editor2-link=Christian Hoard |publisher=Simon & Schuster |edition=4th |year=2004 |isbn=0-7432-0169-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/296 296]}}

| rev10 = Spin Alternative Record Guide

| rev10score = 10/10{{cite book |chapter=Feelies |last=Weisbard |first=Eric |author-link=Eric Weisbard |title=Spin Alternative Record Guide |title-link=Spin Alternative Record Guide |editor1-last=Weisbard |editor1-first=Eric |editor2-last=Marks |editor2-first=Craig |publisher=Vintage Books |year=1995 |isbn=0-679-75574-8 |pages=146–47}}

}}

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".{{cite magazine |last=Du Noyer |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Du Noyer |title=Militant wimpism and teenage werewolves |magazine=NME |page=35 |date=March 8, 1980}} 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".{{cite magazine |last=Silverton |first=Pete |title=A touch too much |magazine=Sounds |page=41 |date=March 8, 1980}} David Hepworth, in Smash Hits, wrote that the band "have the power to really draw you into their strange little suburban world."{{cite magazine |title=The Feelies: Crazy Rhythms |magazine=Smash Hits |volume=2 |issue=6 |date=March 20 – April 2, 1980 |last=Hepworth |first=David |author-link=David Hepworth |page=31}} 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."{{cite magazine |last=Truman |first=James |title=We are normal |magazine=Melody Maker |page=30 |date=March 15, 1980}}

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." 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." 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. The magazine Beat

also described the album as art-punk.{{cite web |title=The Feelies : Here Before

|url=https://beat.com.au/the-feelies-here-before-2/ |website=Beat}} With their very first album, The Feelies managed to speak directly to the zeitgeist of the American independent underground without becoming overexposed or repetitive." 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."{{cite web |url=http://www.tinymixtapes.com/delorean/feelies-crazy-rhythms |title=The Feelies – Crazy Rhythms |work=Tiny Mix Tapes |date=July 9, 2009 |accessdate=February 1, 2013 |last=Vodicka |first=Gabe}}

Crazy Rhythms was placed at number 17 in The Village Voice{{'}}s annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll in 1980, beating out such notable critics' favorites as David Bowie's Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), Joy Division's Closer, and The Specials' debut album.{{cite news |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres80.php |title=The 1980 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll |work=The Village Voice |date=February 9, 1981 |accessdate=February 1, 2013}}

Crazy Rhythms was ranked number 49 in Rolling Stone's list of the 100 best albums of the 1980s, and number 69 on Pitchfork{{'}}s list.{{cite web |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-top-100-albums-of-the-1980s/?page=4 |title=The Top 100 Albums of the 1980s |work=Pitchfork |date=November 20, 2002 |accessdate=February 1, 2013 |page=4}} In 2020, Rolling Stone included Crazy Rhythms in their "80 Greatest albums of 1980" list.{{cite web|url= https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-albums-of-1980-1075743/|title=The 80 Greatest Albums of 1980 What came out of all this was, arguably, the greatest year for great albums ever|publisher=Rolling Stone|date=11 November 2020 |access-date=12 November 2020}}

{{Track listing

| all_writing = Bill Million and Glenn Mercer, except where indicated.

| headline = Side one

| title1 = The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness

| length1 = 5:10

| title2 = Fa Cé-La

| length2 = 2:04

| title3 = Loveless Love

| length3 = 5:14

| title4 = Forces at Work

| length4 = 7:10

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side two

| title5 = Original Love

| length5 = 2:55

| title6 = Everybody's Got Something to Hide (Except Me and My Monkey)

| writer6 = Lennon–McCartney

| length6 = 4:18

| title7 = Moscow Nights

| length7 = 4:34

| title8 = Raised Eyebrows

| length8 = 3:00

| title9 = Crazy Rhythms

| length9 = 6:13

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = CD reissue bonus track

| title10 = Paint It Black

| writer10 = {{hlist|Mick Jagger|Keith Richards}}

| note10 = recorded 1990

| length10 = 2:54

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = 2009 Domino reissue bonus tracks

| title11 = Fa Ce-La

| note11 = single version

| title12 = The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness

| note12 = Carla Bley demo version

| title13 = Moscow Nights

| note13 = Carla Bley demo version

| title14 = Crazy Rhythms

| note14 = live from the 9:30 Club, Washington D.C., March 14, 2009

| title15 = I Wanna Sleep in Your Arms

| note15 = live from the 9:30 Club, Washington D.C., March 14, 2009

| writer15 = Jonathan Richman

}}

• Glenn Mercer – lead, rhythm, 12-string and bowed guitars; vocals; keyboards; temple block; shaker; claves; maracas; bell; castanets; reverbed sticks; shoes; drums; coat rack
• Bill Million – lead, rhythm, and acoustic guitars; vocals; timbales; sandpaper; claves; can; tom-tom; snare; cowbell; shaker; shoes, temple blocks; tambourine; boxes; and bells
• Keith De Nunzio – bass guitar, snare drum, tom-toms, wood block, pipe, bell, and background vocals (except on "Paint It Black")
• Anton Fier – drums, tom-toms, pipe, cowbell (except on "Paint It Black")
• Brenda Sauter – bass guitar, background vocals on "Paint It Black"
• Dave Weckerman – percussion on "Paint It Black"
• Stanley Demeski – drums on "Paint It Black"

The cover to Weezer's first album (1994) has been frequently compared to Crazy Rhythms.{{cite book|last=Luerssen|first=John D.|title=Rivers' Edge: The Weezer Story|publisher=ECW Press|date=2004|isbn=1-55022-619-3}}, page 109.

{{reflist}}

• {{Discogs master|13019|type=album}}

{{The Feelies}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:The Feelies albums

Category:1980 debut albums

Category:Stiff Records albums

Category:A&M Records albums

Category:Bar/None Records albums

Category:Domino Recording Company albums

Category:Avant-pop albums

Category:New wave albums by American artists