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Review of reissues of Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth, the first two seminal albums by the Feelies
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The Feelies
Crazy Rhythms
Play Crazy Rhythms
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AMG Review of Crazy Rhythms
Ned Raggett
All Music GuideEven the cover is a winner, with a washed-out look that screams new wave via horn-rimmed glasses, even more so than contemporaneous pictures of either Elvis Costello or the Embarrassment. But if it was all look and no brain, Crazy Rhythms would long ago have been dismissed as an early-'80s relic. That's exactly what this album is not, right from the soft, haunting hints of percussion that preface the suddenly energetic jump of the appropriately titled "The Boy With the Perpetual Nervousness." From there the band delivers seven more originals plus a striking cover of the Beatles' "Everybody's Got Something to Hide" that rips along even more quickly than the original. The guitar team of Mercer and Million smokes throughout, whether it's soft, rhythmic chiming with a mysterious, distanced air or blasting, angular solos. But Fier is the band's secret weapon, able to play straight-up beats but aiming at a rumbling, strange punch that updates Velvet Underground/Krautrock trance into giddier realms. Mercer's obvious Lou Reed vocal inflections make the VU roots even clearer, but even at this stage of the game there's something fresh about the work the quartet does, even 20 years on -- a good blend of past and present, rave-up and reflection. When the group's later label, A&M, finally got around to reissuing the album for the first time stateside, a curious bonus was included: a version of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It, Black," recorded by the later lineup of the band in 1990. Mercer's voice is noticeably different from his decade-old self, but it's an enthusiastic rendition not too far out of place.
Past Perfect: The Feelies
The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms/The Good Earth
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Track:The Boy With Perpetual Nervousness
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Sunday Under The Covers: The Feelies
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Track:Everybody's Got Something To Hide (Except For Me And My Monkey)
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The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms/The Good Earth
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Track:The Boy With Perpetual Nervousness
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Past Perfect: The Feelies
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Artist:
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Album:
Review of reissues of Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth, the first two seminal albums by the Feelies
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The Feelies rerelease Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth (video / MP3) (Mixed Media)
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The Feelies, an influential new wave band from the '80s, reunited in 2008, and for much of 2009 they've been playing shows all across the United States. To coincide with a performance at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in New York, the band has rereleased Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth. Though they were never hugely popular, The Feelies were a big part of the indie music scene in the 1980...
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The Feelies – Crazy Rhythms / The Good Earth
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The Feelies were a bunch of geeky minimalists who've finally had the reissue treatment on their two albums. Tom Whyman reviews.
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 "Crazy Rhythms")
