Album Review: Cosmic Psychos - Cum The Raw Prawns

Kicking off with Better, Not Bitter and its “Fucken bullshit, maaaate!” refrain – possibly the most Ocker song ever committed to tape – the Cosmic Psychos’ new album, Cum The Raw Prawn, finds the trio putting the yob back in yob rock with glorious gusto.

Recorded on the fly at frontman Knighty’s infamous farm, this represents possibly the dumbest batch of lyrics in the Psychos’ storied catalogue of dumb lyrics, but the music behind them is typically driving and unrelenting, rife with the trio’s innate (albeit brutish) knack for hooks and melody. Mad Macca unleashes some blistering guitar parts on songs like Bum For Grubs, Come & Get Some and Toothbrush – and also contributes two strong tracks in Fuckwit City and Pint Girl – while Dean Muller holds the beat with typical precision and also chucks in the driving Cotton Mouth. Strange drunken skits, laughing and the sound of tinnies being cracked between songs also add a larrikin charm.

It takes a special skill-set to write songs so mindlessly stupid that make you want to grab a beer and scream along at the top of your lungs, but that’s how this lot’s always rolled. At the very end, Didn’t Wanna Love Me moves as close to pathos as Psychos are ever gonna get, but mostly this is the sound of blokes trying to make their mates laugh and having a ripping time (and making some great rock’n’roll) in the process.