Track Listing

1. She Drives Me Crazy
2. Good Thing
3. I'm Not The Man I Used To Be
4. I'm Not Satisfied
5. Tell Me What
6. Don't Look Back
7. It's OK (It's Alright)
8. Don't Let It Get You Down
9. As Hard As It Is
10. Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22274 in Music
• Released on: 1999-10-04
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
With The Raw & the Cooked, the Fine Young Cannibals broke into the mainstream with their particular soul-injected sound. They were seemingly infatuated with late-1950s and early-60s Motown, and the musical influences on this album range from boogie ("Good Thing", on which Squeeze keyboardist Jools Holland goes to town with a foot-stompin' piano solo) to poodle-skirted slow dance ("As Hard As It Is", "Tell Me What"), then stretch as far as Prince-like funk ("Don't Let It Get You Down"). Possessing one of the most unusual voices in all of pop music, lead singer Roland Gift gives this album its distinction and the Fine Young Cannibals their identity. About half the songs (including the hit "She Drives Me Crazy") are graced with Gift's steady, crystal-clear falsetto, but it's his swollen-throated lower register, where he sounds like he is singing through a trumpeter's plunger mute, that really makes his voice unmistakable. --Beth Bessmer

From Amazon.com
With The Raw & the Cooked, the Fine Young Cannibals broke into the mainstream with their particular soul-injected sound. They were seemingly infatuated with late-'50s and early-'60s Motown, and the musical influences on this album range from boogie ("Good Thing," on which Squeeze keyboardist Jools Holland goes to town with a foot-stompin' piano solo) to poodle-skirted slow dance ("As Hard As It Is," "Tell Me What"), then stretch as far as Prince-like funk ("Don't Let It Get You Down"). Possessing one of the most unusual voices in all of pop music, lead singer Roland Gift gives this album its distinction and the Fine Young Cannibals their identity. About half the songs (including the hit "She Drives Me Crazy") are graced with Gift's steady, crystal-clear falsetto, but it's his swollen-throated lower register, where he sounds like he is singing through a trumpeter's plunger mute, that really makes his voice unmistakable. --Beth Bessmer

Customer Reviews

Timeless
13 years on, this album still sounds remarkably fresh. Each track is different from the last, yet the album gels in one unique whole. Taking more traditional soul ("As Hard As It Is", "Tell Me What", "Good Thing"), jangly pop ("Don't Look Back", "Ever Fallen In Love?") and what was at the time contemporary dance ("She Drives Me Crazy", "Don't Let It Get You Down", "I'm Not The Man I Used To Be"), this album is a great collection of tracks, and highly recommended to anyone who likes good music. It took the band 2 years to produce, and there never was a follow-up but the results were worth it.

FACT: The video for "I'm Not The Man I Used To Be", released as a single Novemeber 1989, featured a young American dancer by the name of Sean "Puffy" Combs.......

Don't buy the "best of", just buy this!
This was the cannibals best work in my opinion, and will surely not disappoint! All the classics like "She drives me crazy" , "good thing" are here! Put this in the car and DRIVE!

One of the very best two-hit wonders of all time
The minor complaints would be that "The Raw & the cooked" has only ten songs and about 35 minutes worth of music. The bigger complain would be that the Fine Young Cannibals never put out another album as good as this 1988 effort which had its first two tracks, "She Drives Me Crazy" and "Good Thing," hit #1 on the Billboard Pop chart. FYC consisted of sing Roland Gift with a pair of former Beat members, guitarist Andy Cox and David Steele on keyboards/bass. Pegging the songs on this album into even a couple of niches is difficult because you will hear bits of everything from Motown and R&B from the past to punk and disco from the "present" in these ten songs, all fused together in a distinctive and enjoyable sound. Credit must be given to producer David Z, who had worked with Prince, Billy Idol, and others out of Minneapolis. Most of the songs were released as singles in the U.K.

Besides the first two cuts, the torch song "I'm Not the Man I Used to Be" keeps the party going on this album. But the most memorable track remains "She Drives Me Crazy," which has one of the most instantly identifiable openings of the decade and which was used to great effect in an episode of "thirtysomething" when Elliott fantasizes about what Nancy is doing after their divorce. I understand that the snare drum bit from that song is one of the most frequently sampled sounds in music history. Makes sense to me.

"The Raw & the Cooked" sold over 2 million copies and made it to the top of the album charts as well. When people talk about one hit wonders they are talking about artists where you want to have their big song but not their album. That is most certainly not the case with the Fine Young Cannibals. The only reason not to pick up this album would be because you also like some of FYC's earlier work (they only put out two albums) and you end up going with their hits collection "Finest," which has the six singles from this album.