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FEELIES, THE- Good Earth LP
Surely, you’ve heard of it: The (Dreaded) Second Album Syndrome. A band creates something magical and unique on its debut disc. Then, a second album is churned out quickly, the band – or the record company – feeling the pressure to capitalize, want to strike again before the public’s interest wanes. And many times, that second album is inferior, the songs sounding like out-takes that didn’t make the cut first time around. For good reason.
This is not what happened to the Feelies, the band co-led by guitarist-singers Glenn Mercer and Bill Million.
The Haledon, NJ-based group started playing together in 1976. There were lineup shifts, but a quartet solidified by the late ‘70s and their first album, “Crazy Rhythms,” came out in 1980 on Stiff. “Crazy Rhythms” was stunning, with its juxtaposition of calm and manic moods, minor and major chords, its weave of twisting, piercing guitar leads and, yes, crazy rhythms. It sounded like a record made by smart, repressed and agitated outsiders: punk rock in its own way, on its own terms. I was a critic for the Boston Globe and it was one of my favorite albums of the year. I highly anticipated their next album. That’s the one you’re now holding, “The Good Earth.” It first came out … six years after “Crazy Rhythms.”
This is not what happened to the Feelies, the band co-led by guitarist-singers Glenn Mercer and Bill Million.
The Haledon, NJ-based group started playing together in 1976. There were lineup shifts, but a quartet solidified by the late ‘70s and their first album, “Crazy Rhythms,” came out in 1980 on Stiff. “Crazy Rhythms” was stunning, with its juxtaposition of calm and manic moods, minor and major chords, its weave of twisting, piercing guitar leads and, yes, crazy rhythms. It sounded like a record made by smart, repressed and agitated outsiders: punk rock in its own way, on its own terms. I was a critic for the Boston Globe and it was one of my favorite albums of the year. I highly anticipated their next album. That’s the one you’re now holding, “The Good Earth.” It first came out … six years after “Crazy Rhythms.”