4/5 stars
Back in 1985, Coca-Cola launched its better-tasting ‘New Coke’ formula, replete with marketing fanfare. The company was immediately confronted with a barrage of complaints from its customer base, and within weeks ‘classic’ Coke had been reintroduced to the market.
Years later, marketing strategists would muse that the campaign was an elaborate PR ruse designed to affirm the original Coke brand.
Judging by CumTheRawPrawn, there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that Cosmic Psychos will change their tried and tested formula – notwithstanding Ross Knight’s assertion in ‘Bum For Grubs’that there’s more to him “thanbeerandpubs”. Knight retains his iron grip on Australian vernacular, John ‘Mad Macka’ McKeering drenches his power chords in a dirty wah-wah wash and Dean Mueller thrashes his drum kit like a country cricketer wreaking havoc on a Saturday afternoon. The profane rhetoric of ‘Better, Not Bitter’betrays the Psychos’ resilience to fashion – in their words, “It’sfuckingbullshitmate.” ‘Fuckwit City’ cuts through the rubbish of diplomacy and says what we all think, but are rarely prepared to say.
There’s a theory in marketing that brands need periodic reinvention to remain vibrant in an ever-evolving commercial market. Go tell that to the Cosmic Psychos, and they’ll tell you to go fuck yourself. And they’d be right.
Cum The Raw Prawn by Cosmic Psychos is out through Desperate.
