Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The A.V. Club	A
Christgau's Record Guide	A−
The Guardian
Mojo
Pitchfork Media	9.1/10
PopMatters	9/10
Rolling Stone
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Spin Alternative Record Guide	10/10

Crazy Rhythms is the debut studio album by American rock band The Feelies. It was released in April 1980, through 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.

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."

Although not commercially popular upon release, Crazy Rhythms was a critical success, coming in a number 17 in the Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll, beating out such notable critics' favorites as David Bowie's Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), Joy Division's Closer, The Rolling Stones's Emotional Rescue and The Specials' debut album.David Hepworth, in Smash Hits, wrote that the band "have the power to really draw you into their strange little suburban world."

In their retrospective review, The Guardian called Crazy Rhythms "one of those albums during whose course you hear the most exciting sound in music: things changing."Rolling Stone branded it "a landmark of jangly, guitar-driven avant-pop, and its shimmersing sound can still be heard in bands like R.E.M.."PopMatters wrote that the album "stands as a wildly inventive and influential record that stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the best music of the American post-punk era. With their very first album, The Feelies managed to speak directly to the zeitgeist of the American independent underground without becoming overexposed or repetitive."Tiny Mix Tapes wrote, "Crazy Rhythms, released in April 1980 amongst a veritable shitstorm of like-minded groups, stands grinning madly at the top of the pile – a shining monument to new wave at its quirky best."

...
Wikipedia