- Cosmic Psychos return again this year with their eleventh studio release, Loudmouth Soup. It’s been just over thirty years now since the band’s self-titled debut and about three since their previous album Cum the Raw Prawn, and it’s safe to say that in this time not much has changed.
Loudmouth Soup contains the same yob rock irreverence we’ve come to love from the Psychos, having yet to let up singing about the buzz they get from alcohol and taking the piss out of whatever, and whoever, takes their fancy. This time round the boys have entitled their opening track 100 Cans Of Beer, and what follows, lyrically, is exactly what you’d expect: songs about faeces, arse-cracks, farms, more booze and… others which may not be about anything at all. One song seems entirely dedicated to sh*tting on Collingwood Football Club supporters.
Thirty years of rockin’ and drinkin’ has been notoriously fatal to many bands and musicians, whether musically or…actually. It’s a pleasure to see the Psychos not falling into this category, and you can sort of get some clues why from listening to the album. Funnily enough, the song Feeling Average, for which a music video has been produced, marks the first time the band have produced a song about the world’s worst hangover. You could say it defines the album a bit too.
This album is a little less in your face than 2015’s Cum The Raw Prawn: few songs depart from mid-tempo grooves, riffs are more straightforward, and while the band maintains their characteristic sound, there’s a little less snarl & growl in the sound this time round; it's less ‘front-heavy’. The mix is quite different too, sitting much more horizontally and flatly layed-out, rather than layered like some kind of electric-riff-cake. It's not surprising, as the album was produced by long-time friend and collaborator with the Psychos Silvia Vermeulen. It sounds much more like listening to the band in the shed where the album was recorded, than on the festival stage.
That reduction in intensity, that may be the thing I come away with: it's more comfortable, but, hey, definitely just as dumb and profane. Just listen to Better in the Shed. It wouldn’t be fair to say that the music is more ‘responsible’, but there’s the sense in the record that the boys are finding a more sustainable groove for their songwriting. Fair enough, given that they’ve shown no signs of letting up on their commitment to giving punters an even better reason to drink, no matter if it makes them 'feel a bit average' later on.
- Anton Kalisch-Smith.