Feelies
(Bar/None)
The Feelies' 1980 debut had a wonderfully tightly-wound, tense sound to it. They powered through enigmatic lyrics and Velvets-inspired grooves, boosted by intricate percussion and capped off by a raving Beatles cover ("Everybody's Got Something To Hide") and the drum-led, post-rock-before-its-time "Raised Eyebrows." Even the preppie album cover (later copied by Weezer) proved as influential as Devo in celebrating nerds. The remastered reissue adds (as digital-only bonuses) "Fa Ce La" in its stripped-down single version and interesting building-block demos for the album plus recent high-speed live takes on Crazy Rhythms' title track and Jonathan Richman's "I Wanna Sleep In Your Arms."
Their 1985 follow-up The Good Earth (co-produced by R.E.M.'s Peter Buck) finds the band much mellower and beautifully breezy but still plenty tuneful and full of nice fuzzed-out guitar solos. As such, side-openers "On the Roof" and "Let's Go" made appropriate choices for a recent semi-acoustic gig they did. The digital bonuses here are even better than Rhythms': two Earth-era EP tracks, an even better and more appropriate Beatles cover (the joyous "She Said, She Said") and a Neil Young cover ("Sedan Delivery"), alongside a current live take on "Slipping (Into Something)," one of Earth's high-powered tracks.
Disclaimer: I helped the band smooth out some red tape with these reissues. But honestly, if any of you indie fans could have done the same, why would you hesitate?
Standout Tracks: "Crazy Rhythms" (Crazy Rhythms), "The Last Roundup" (The Good Earth) JASON GROSS
