The Raw & the Cooked is the second and final studio album by British rock band Fine Young Cannibals, released in 1989.

Multiple songs from The Raw & the Cooked debuted long before their release on the album; the band's cover of Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)" originally appeared on the soundtrack for the 1986 Jonathan Demme film Something Wild.

[2] Three other songs from the album—"Good Thing", "Tell Me What" and "As Hard as It Is"—first appeared in the 1987 film Tin Men, where the Fine Young Cannibals portrayed a band in a nightclub.

[6] The rest of the band, David Steele and Andy Cox, however, formed the side-project duo Two Men, a Drum Machine and a Trumpet, an acid house-inspired project which was described as "high-tech" and "danceable.

[7] Nonetheless, Fine Young Cannibals reconvened soon afterwards to focus their attention on writing and recording the remainder of The Raw & the Cooked.

The band initially considered Latin Rascals and Gil Evans but eventually asked MCA to approach Prince to produce tracks to complete the album.

[9] Unlike the band's self-titled debut album, Fine Young Cannibals' recording approach on The Raw & the Cooked was more experimental.

The sonic result was closer to a hollow wood block sound than any snare found on a conventional rock record, and in becoming, along with Gift's vocals, the signature of the song, it would go on to have many lives of its own subsequent to the single's run up the charts.

One of the lines was also played back through an underwater pool-type speaker Z had laying around, then re-recorded to tape, giving it a muted, mysterious quality that no onboard or outboard EQ could mimic;" Z stated that "what really made the guitars stand out, though, was that as Andy [Cox] was playing to chord parts, I was slowly twisting the EQ from one extreme to the other, giving it this wah effect, so every part on the record has a very individual and unique sound.

"[13] A departure from the political lyrics of Fine Young Cannibals' first album, the songs on The Raw & the Cooked concern romantic and longing themes such as love, regret and loss.

"[15] In Colin Larkin's The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, the album is described as "featuring cultivated soul ballads to complement further material of a politically direct nature.

"[17] With the exception of the cover of Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen in Love", Roland Gift and David Steele wrote all the songs on the album, with Andy Cox also credited as co-writing "It's OK (It's Alright)".

"[5] Jo-Ann Greene of AllMusic stated the album presents very diverse rhythms, most of which are constructed synthetically, and "a shopping list of genres" where "mod, funk, Motown, British beat, R&B, punk, rock, and even disco are embedded within the songs".

[20] In Metro Weekly, Chris Gerard noted of its diverse directions: "the funky pop that David Z helped contribute is a far cry from the old-school R&B of the Tin Men tracks.

[14] Robert Christgau deemed it a pop album in that it features "mostly admittedly quite hooky" beats and "vocal ID", in addition to multiple hooks and melodies.

Concerning dance music and their incorporation of the genre, Cox said that "the dance-music thing is like the punk of the Eighties, rock & roll in the Fifties.

"[20] "Good Thing" is the band's tribute to the northern soul all-nighter parties of the 1960s and 1970s,[20] and was referred to by AllMusic's Dave Thompson as "arguably the apotheosis of the Cannibals's hybrid sound.

"[23] It features a choppy rhythm,[14] and is constructed around a "slinky R&B riff" which is further aided by a boogie-woogie piano and "slammed home with a cracking beat.

[26] "Don't Look Back" was influenced by 1960s jangle pop pioneers The Byrds, "while a touch of mid-Sixties Beatles-styled riffing adds further glamor".

[21] Thompson said that, accompanying Gift's soulful vocals, "it's a stunning performance that the rest of the band deftly back with moody synths, insistent beats, a bassline that thrums with its own pain, and the moodiest of brass solos.

"[5] Rob Tannenbaum said that, in doing so, "the Cannibals achieved the rare trick of bridging these two formats as a result of the transitions that took place in the band between albums.

Steve Hochman, writing for the Los Angeles Times, deemed it a "sophomore opus" which "just may be the best tribute to and update of American soul styles from England since the Rolling Stones' Black and Blue or side 2 of Tattoo You."

"[14] In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau praised the album as "good pop",[15] while in Rolling Stone, Jimmy Guterman called it a "soulful gem" which "far outshines the debut" and concluded that "it took a while, but The Raw and the Cooked is Fine Young Cannibals' great step forward.

In her review for AllMusic, Jo-Ann Greene called it "one of the most exciting albums" released in the 1980s, commenting how "in a mere ten songs and 35 minutes the Fine Young Cannibals created a masterpiece.

"[20] Greene found that each track "simmers with creativity, as the hooks, sharp melodies, and irrepressible beats are caressed by nuanced arrangements and sparkling production.

"[20] Tom Doyle of Mojo described The Raw & the Cooked as "an eclectic but sharply-honed album that rightly took them to the toppermost of the poppermost.

"[citation needed] In 1995, Q included The Raw & the Cooked in its publication "In Our Lifetime: Q's 100 Best Albums 1986–94", a list compiled to celebrate its 100th issue.

The album, largely consisting of remixes from The Raw & the Cooked, included "two versions each of 'She Drives Me Crazy,' 'I'm Not the Man I Used to Be' and 'I'm Not Satisfied' as well as danceable overhauls of 'Good Thing,' 'Johnny Come Home' and others.

[73] The band's record label and manager had never previously experienced success the size of The Raw & the Cooked, and "they didn't know how to handle it.

"[74] The innovative snare drum sound from "She Drives Me Crazy" quickly became heavily sampled among numerous different recordings as well as a popular television advertisement for Pepsi in the early 1990s.