The best thing about the new reissue of The Feelies’ Crazy Rhythms, apart from the opportunity to easily and cheaply obtain one of the most brilliant albums ever made, is the totally boss digital bonuses that come with it. If you just fucking buy it, which you should, you get a download card for a half dozen demos, alternate versions and live tracks which fucking slay and interestingly show how The Feelies weren’t always super squeaky clean, repressed, polyrhythm-obsessed geeks (no disrespect). Aside from being mad catchy and totally great, Crazy Rhythms is an amazing work of precision: clean, dry guitars, immaculate percussion, ultra controlled drumming. On these bonus tracks, though, you get to hear The Feelies getting their thrash awn in the live version of Crazy Rhythms; singing out of key in the Moscow Nights demo; and going all lo-fi and distortion-heavy in the single version of all-time golden classic Fa Cé-La. If I’m being too ambivalent, this is killer. The Feelies get a lot of comparisons with Talking Heads on account of the hip/dorky + percussion thing, and these tracks are basically their Stop Making Sense. You just need to imagine the oversized white suit.
[The Feelies website]
[Buy Crazy Rhythms from Domino]
