The Feelies: The Good Earth [BAR NONE]

Why you'll love it

Bar/None's reissue was remastered by Andreas Meyer at Tangerine Mastering and keeps the original ten-song running order. Pitchfork gave it 9.1, and it's the warm, jangling heart of the Feelies' catalogue.

This edition

• Remastered
• Download card included

About the album

Six years is a long gap between a debut and its follow-up, but the Feelies spent it well. The nervy, wound-up energy of Crazy Rhythms gave way to something gentler and more pastoral, a record of strummed acoustic guitars, patient builds and suburban New Jersey calm, made at Mixolydian studio in Boonton.

Glenn Mercer and Bill Million wrote every song and co-produced with R.E.M.'s Peter Buck. The band, with Brenda Sauter on bass and violin and Stan Demeski and Dave Weckerman on drums and percussion, gives it a rolling, hypnotic pulse. "On the Roof" opens with a quiet shimmer, "The High Road" builds into a glorious rush, and "Slipping (Into Something)" runs for nearly six minutes of slow-burning guitar tension before it finally lets go. Sauter shot the front cover photo of the band, and Mercer designed the sleeve.

The A.V. Club gave it an A and the Village Voice an A minus. For the 2009 reissue the band put their bonus tracks online and kept the record exactly as they made it; we respect a group that knows when an album is finished.

Also at Kops: more The Feelies on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Bar/None (cat# BRNLP197), a reissue of the 1986 album.