The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms (Album Review)

 

The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms

(1980)


My copy: 2022 limited reissue on sky-blue vinyl by Bar/None Records


Crazy Rhythms is an album that lives very true to its name: guitar, bass and drums all work together to create cascading rivers of rhythmic melodies. The songs on this album are very particular and border on complete subtlety. Most of the tracks on Crazy Rhythms fade in and out and feature quiet, muted guitar and meticulous percussion as if they were ethereal dreams passing through in the night. 

“The Boy With The Perpetual Nervousness” uses woodblocks, soft muted guitar and simple basslines to build a humble sense of momentum. Even when guitars solo on this track, they are pushed all the way to the back of the mix with a few snaps bleeding into the focal points, which is bizarre and unique. The vocals on the first half of the record are largely hushed or quieter in the mix and lyrics touch on social alienation, love and insecurity. 

Some songs on this album begin calm and slow only to build up speed and slowly introduce new instruments (“Loveless Love,” “Forces At Work”). The core of what makes Crazy Rhythms so fun is the vast array of interesting percussive elements that are used for a variety of effects. Shaker is used on “Original Love,” while strange percussive hisses crackle in “Moscow Nights.” No song uses percussion quite like “Raised Eyebrows,” which features multi-tracked rim clicks with palm-muted guitar to create an overflowing wall of sound. 

These are largely not typical rock songs, rather they are meditations that eventually explode into jangle-pop melodies with some solid vocal harmonies. While songs like “Everybody’s Got Something To Hide (Except Me And My Monkey)” channel Bowie in the vocal performances, the structures of these tracks are just too weird and playful to fit into the normal pop sphere. “Crazy Rhythms” is a masterpiece with insanely catchy vocal melodies that also tests listeners with a multi-minute long middle passage of almost kraut-rock style jamming before breaking back into the pop section. 

For its masterfully playful songwriting skills, Crazy Rhythms deserves attention especially considering that it was so ahead of the mark for its time. Unfortunately, due to the almost anti-pop nature of some songs, melodies can take time to really stick with you, especially in the first half. The second half of the record is fantastic, and jangle-pop fans should pick this up immediately. 

My copy is an exclusive Newbury Comics press that is still quite available. There are also other readily available pressings.


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