Ignoring the advice of poker players and negotiators alike, I'll start by showing you my hand: Crazy Rhythms is one of the best albums I've ever heard.
With that out of the way, The Feelies first release is a remarkably distinctive and prodigious effort amid the indie rock spectrum. Its blending of post-punk and new wave stylings forged a record that lacks the heavy reverb and high-pitched vapidity of the respective genres. At the same time, the album's sound is a towering soundscape layering crisp, ringing guitars over a diverse and exceedingly tight rhythm section. However, the constantly shifting song structure is one of the album's strengths with The Feelies to leap from climaxing arpeggios (Loveless Love) to extended drum solos (Crazy Rhythms) that never evince pretension.
Topping the instrumentation is brilliantly quirky vocalwork mimicking the manic emotionality of teenage years. Drifting from shy nervousness (The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness) to boisterousness (Raised Eyebrows) to feeling invisibile (Crazy Rhythms), the album is the perfect expression of a high school outsider (see: cover art).
Ultimately, Crazy Rhythms is kinetic, but masterfully controlled; brimming with energy, but carefully contained. With the exception of two covers (Everybody's Got Something to Hide, Paint it Black) that are easily skipped in favor of far more interesting tracks, Crazy Rhythms is The Feelies' masterpiece.
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