The Feelies - CRAZY RHYTHMS - poll

FWIW - "Moscow Nights" is my pick. One of the handful of songs that performs something that no other song in existence does. What, I'm not sure exactly, but it's a perfect mini-epic of tension and release. Yow!

"Moscow Nights" is, yes, a devastating mystery. I'd have no problem going with "Loveless Love" or "Original Love," though.

"The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness". The slow build to creeping chills to full embrace; the first song I ever heard from them put me in their thrall.

FINALLY got the remaster about a month ago, and have been listening to this a ton (remaster highly recommended). Don't know what my fave song would be -- the whole album is kinda perfectly paced and cohesive. Maybe Forces At Work? I've been loving the long one chord jam at the end ...

"Moscow Nights" for me too...when I got the album in the early 90s it was the song that drew me into listening again (as I found it thin-sounding on first listen).

Is anyone going to überchallops and rep for "Raised Eyebrows"?

Forces At Work 4EVA!!!!

"Raised Eyebrows" is awesome, and the one I voted for -- but just barely over "Fa Ce-La."

songwriting of "Moscow Nights" vs. vocals on "Raised Eyebrows" vs. 1-chord jam on "Forces At Work" vs. Demeski's percussion on "Crazy Rhythms" = impossible.

"Raised Eyebrows" is def. my second choice, and could easily be my first choice; not sure why voting it is challopian.

yeah nothing wrong with voting for "raised eyebrows" -- it's a great track!

voted for "perpetual nervousness." i love it. it totally reminds me of a.r. & machines musically, for some reason.

probably frenetic picking and direct-in guitar sound.

yeah, that's the whole secret of the guitar sound on this record, isn't it? guitars plugged in direct:
Mercer: One of the main reasons, we had a lot of problems getting a good guitar sound in the studio. We tried everything. Different amps, different rooms. Pretty much exhausted everything we could at the studio we were at. Mark Ambel, the co-producer of that record, said "why don't we record the guitar direct and feed them back to an amp when we're ready to mix?" We were scheduled to mix in a better studio. He told us that we'd get a much better sound there. So we were recording the guitars and doing it direct, which is like a rule. NEVER RECORD THE GUITARS DIRECT. It sounded really dry and dead. But we really started actually to like the sound. A lot of the guitars on the record were kept that way. We actually found that when you record direct, it's a little bit closer to your ear. You have the space of the speaker and the ambience of the mike when you're recording it. A lot of what people think are acoustic guitars are just electric guitars recorded direct. A kind of dry sound.

Fa Cé-La all the way

title track for sure

fa fa fa fa fa fa ce la

"Raised Eyebrows" by a mile--greatest instrumental-that's-technically-not-an-instrumental ever.

i listened to this album on a used cassette on repeat so much in high school that it's hard not to conceive it as one long awesome song - waffling between "boy with perpetual" out of first-moment-of-holy-shit nostalgia and "raised eyebrows" as its usually my mix CD pick, and "crazy rhythms" as its the only track doesn't make me want to hear what follows it after (though I didn't mind "Paint It Black" back in the day, I've successfully blocked it out of my concept of the album now).

Though this poll, I'm finding out for the first time that what I long thought was the only dud track - the cover of 'Paint It Black' - is in fact a 'bonus' appended to the CD reissue, thus making the original album pretty much flawless. I'm really tempted to go with the Beatles cover, which is great and which might otherwise go without any support, but will probably vote for 'Loveless Love.' Will make up my mind after a half dozen or so more listens.

yeah, Paint It Black was recorded when, early 90s? I like it fine, but it should not be at the end of the album ... kind of bizarre that it is (or was) -- the band says it was done without their approval by the label.

Raised Eyebrows

The last 70 seconds is simply my favourite passage of music.

so the remaster is worth getting, yes? available on itunes?

Worth getting? Yes. The reissue of The Good Earth is even more necessary.

Loveless Love. Spent years looking for the Field Mice version after reading about it in the booklet to their compilation, but it turns out to be kind of blah.

ok just bought the remaster off of itunes and it's pretty :D

:D :D :D

They saved the best for last - voting for "Crazy Rhythms."

Forces at Work

Raised Eyebrows. Gets the job done and stays no longer.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

OK I did this, it was hard.

ha, me too! totally hard to choose.

The boy next door is ME, alright

Forces at Work

Is someone going to poll the Good Earth next? Should I?

Do it.

okay!

Raised Eyebrows ftw

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I was kinda hoping Original Love would get at least one vote.

Thanks for playing, kids!

you never listened to me anyway

I don't talk much cuz it gets in the way

I would have chosen "Moscow Nights" as well. I always wondered what it was about. My only gripe is the 45 seconds of silence that opens the track, it's not really a big deal when you listen to the album straight through, but I hate when this comes on shuffle and it makes you wonder if your player has crashed...doh