Discovering a record like Crazy Rhythms by The Feelies was one of those quasi-religious experiences, wherein I felt the need to preach its gospel to anyone who would listen. It’s one of those used record store finds that sounds better the more worn-in your copy is. The songs are a contradictory amalgamation of jitters and pop. It’s dark music played fast and nervously with an acute sense of melody. And the production is earphone heaven. It’s the sort of album that every record store clerk worth talking to owns multiple copies of, yet it never made much of an impact commercially. But its influence on early 1980’s college rock is unmistakable. The Feelies took six years to follow it up with The Good Earth, which is barely recognizable as coming from the same band (which, technically, after multiple line-up changes, wasn’t the same). Bar None records is reissuing these first two Feelies albums in looooong-overdue deluxe editions, complete with heavy graham vinyl editions. Strangely, the bonus tracks will only be available digitally, so the discs themselves will feature just the remastered albums. Supposedly, the band did not want to alter the original artwork. If you have never sat down with a pair of headphones and Crazy Rhythms on the turntable, I am jealous of that feeling you are about to experience for the first time. [via Pitchfork]

Crazy Rhythms:

01 The Boy With the Perpetual Nervousness
02 Fa cé-La
03 Loveless Love
04 Forces at Work
05 Original Love
06 Everybody’s Got Something to Hide (Except Me and My Monkey)
07 Moscow Nights
08 Raised Eyebrows
09 Crazy Rhythms

Crazy Rhythms bonus tracks:

01 Fa cé-La (single version)
02 The Boy With the Perpetual Nervousness (Carla Bley demo version)
03 Moscow Nights (Carla Bley demo version)
04 Crazy Rhythms (live)
05 I Wanna Sleep in Your Arms (live) (Modern Lovers cover)

The Good Earth:

01 On the Roof
02 The High Road
03 The Last Roundup
04 Slipping (Into Something)
05 When Company Comes
06 Let’s Go
07 Two Rooms
08 The Good Earth
09 Tomorrow Today
10 Slow Down

The Good Earth bonus tracks:

01 She Said, She Said (Beatles cover)
02 Sedan Delivery (Neil Young cover)
03 Slipping (Into Something) (live)