Crazy Rhythms is the debut studio album by American rock band the Feelies. It was released in the United Kingdom on February 29, 1980, and in the United States in April 1980, through British record label Stiff. Its fusion of post-punk and jangle pop was influential on the forthcoming alternative rock genre, with R.E.M., among others, citing the album as an influence. Although it was not commercially successful initially, it has remained critically lauded in the decades since its release. Background On the album, band member Glenn Mercer has said "The sound we were after was a reaction against the punk scene [...] Being a little older, we felt it had all been done before. We wanted the guitars to be cleaner, and we started experimenting with a lot of percussion." Release history The first release on CD was in Germany and the United States in 1986. A&M Records released the album on CD in 1990 with a bonus track, a cover of The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black". The track was recorded in 1990 without Fier or DeNunzio. Bar/None Records reissued Crazy Rhythms on September 8, 2009, while Domino Records reissued the album outside of the U.S. and Canada. Critical reception Although not a commercial success, Crazy Rhythms was critically acclaimed on release. Paul Du Noyer of NME said that the record was "a very good album. I think it might even be a great one." He observed that the band "sound like Jonathan Richman trying to sound like the Velvet Underground", as well as Talking Heads, but that "somehow the way they are so derivative is part of the Feelies' appeal". Du Noyer described the music as "a kind of cleanly suburban rock'n'roll which is simultaneously intense and simplistic" and that the band seemed like "boys next door" but "they're nothing of the sort". In a five-star review in Sounds, Pete Silverton observed that for him, the album only worked when he listened to it alone, not with company, and that it blended "the drive of Richman's 'Roadrunner' and some of the tense meanderings of Television". He summed up the album as "all light and fun over driving but muted city beats – a little jazz here, a little Latin American there and virtually no rock and roll; most every rhythmic play you can hear on New York radio, topped by cool, calm and collected vocals". David Hepworth,