The Feelies
Crazy Rhythms

THE REVIEW

If we had to reference an album that defines the "underground" sound, if we had to introduce a music "initiate" to all the best characteristics of the "new wave" sound, if we had to forget the good things that the much-maligned 80s brought, well... we would have to put this CD in the player.

The four youthful guys appearing on the curious cover were nothing more than typical cultured and intellectual students from the American middle class eager to form a band, like so many others. And like so many others, they began in complete anonymity, playing mostly at parties and in "garage parties," but soon became "famous" in the New Jersey "underground" scene, given their extraordinary ability to craft a nervous, sick, decadent, and icy sound, drawing inspiration from their idols (Velvet Underground, Beatles, Stones) but metabolizing them through a masterful work of "intellectual transfiguration."

The "Crazy Rhythms" of the drums by the never-too-acclaimed Anton Fier (who replaced the "first choice" Vinnie DeNunzio after a few months), the electronically treated guitar excursions, and Glenn Mercer's emotionally void singing reduce the sound to a psychotic and android raga, permeated by a subtle underlying tension that serves as the thread of the entire work.

The opening track, The Boy With Perpetual Nervousness, already shows its intentions from the title. It takes a minute before the track takes shape, before that tinkling and distant guitar progression is stormed by the drums. A pounding, penetrating rhythm stands in the foreground with guitars in the background weaving hypnotic noises. The following Fa Cé-La is a typical nonsensical, funny, and paced track, typically punk, with a sprinkling of "Marquee Moon" on the guitars.
With Loveless Love, we return to sick territories, with expressionistic vocal (the disorienting backing chorus) and electronic punctuations. To increase the anxiolytic level, the volume even drops in the middle section before exploding into a schizoid design at the end. Extraordinary.
The title track, placed at the end of the album (the CD version also includes an excellent cover of Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones) is perhaps the most experimental episode of the bunch, a manifesto of their world. A little song that starts carefree and cheerful only to derail into a Neu-like motoristic rhythm, embellished with brief electronic counterpoints. A headache.

One cannot avoid using the adjective "seminal" when talking about "Crazy Rhythms" (but the Feelies themselves also moved along already mapped coordinates), just listen to R.E.M. of "Murmur," for example. A legendary album (also due to its scarce availability), which the dust of time has not dimmed in the slightest, quite the opposite. Brilliant.