In the eight years since Amyl and The Sniffers came together in Melbourne’s sticky pub-rock scene, Amyl and the Sniffers have become masters of balancing power and playfulness. With two critically acclaimed albums under their belt - 2019’s self-titled debut and 2021’s visceral ‘Comfort To Me’ - vocalist Amy Taylor, guitarist Declan Mehrtens, bassist Gus Romer and drummer Bryce Wilson have achieved something unique and remarkable.

Since the release of Comfort to Me, the band has seen their horizons broaden exponentially in every way. And it’s this attitude - bigger, brighter, smarter, sharper - that’s fuelling their third album, ‘Cartoon Darkness’. Recorded with producer Nick Launay at Foo Fighters’ 606 Studios in Los Angeles, on the same desk that captured Nirvana’s Nevermind and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, the latest Amyl offering is full of surprises. Musically, Mehrtens, Romer and Wilson have written The Sniffers’ most diverse album yet. It stretches from classic punk to the glammy strut of recent single ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’ to the stormy balladry of ‘Big Dreams’ (which is a sonic gear shift worthy of the title).

Cartoon Darkness is about climate crisis, war, AI, tip-toeing on the eggshells of politics, and people feeling like they're helping by having a voice online when we’re all just feeding the data beast of Big Tech, our modern day god. It’s about the fact that our generation is spoon-fed information. We look like adults, but we’re children forever cocooned in a shell. We’re all passively gulping up distractions that don’t even cause pleasure, sensation or joy, they just cause numbness.

Everything is such hard work, everything is heartbreaking, but everything is beautiful. I want to celebrate. I want to put my phone down and see someone's facial expression change with what they say. I want to people-watch. I want to see if there are bugs where I walk, but I don't see them. I also want the fantasy and the escapism. I want to lean into hedonism, I want to feel alive, while acknowledging the dystopia and chaos unfolding around me.

Cartoon Darkness is driving head first into the unknown, into this looming sketch of the future that feels terrible, but doesn’t even exist yet. A childlike darkness. I don’t want to meet the devil half-way and mourn what we have right now. The future is cartoon, the prescription is dark, but it's novelty. It's just a joke. It's fun.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Another blazing transmission from Melbourne pub-rock sensation, Amyl And The Sniffers. Bold, jagged sweeps of distorted guitars and pummelling percussion underpin Taylor's acerbic vocals. This time, we get a slightly more nuanced selection, with the familiar fiery phrases balanced with some more thoughtful and tentative melodic elements, but nothing that changes everything we love about this singularly energetic force.

TRACK LISTING

Jerkin’
Chewing Gum
Tiny Bikini
Big Dreams
It’s Mine
Motorbike Song
Doing In Me Head
Pigs
Bailing On Me
U Should Not Be Doing That
Do It Do It
Going Somewhere
Me And The Girls

Already renowned for a ball-tearing live show, The Sniffers made their international debut as one of the hottest tipped acts at The Great Escape in 2018. Soon afterwards, they signed deals with both Rough Trade Records and ATO Records, made a massively hyped appearance at SXSW, and finally released their self-titled debut album in 2019, landing them an ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Award for Best Rock Album, capping off a wild year for the lunatic, likeable punks.

Late in 2020, Amyl and The Sniffers went into the studio with producer Dan Luscombe to record their sophomore album, Comfort To Me. Written over a long year of lockdown, the album was influenced by and expanded on a heavier pool of references - old-school rock’n’roll (AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, Motörhead and Wendy O Williams), modern hardcore (Warthog and Power Trip) and the steady homeland heroes (Coloured Balls and Cosmic Psychos). Lyrically, the album was influenced by Taylor’s rap idols and countless garage bands and in her words ‘I had all this energy inside of me and nowhere to put it, because I couldn’t perform, and it had a hectic effect on my brain. My brain evolved and warped and my way of thinking about the world completely changed.’

Seventeen songs were recorded in the Comfort to Me sessions and the top 13 made the cut. They were mixed long-distance by Nick Launay (Nick Cave, IDLES, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and mastered by Bernie Grundman (Michael Jackson, Prince, Dr Dre).

Comfort To Me demonstrates the same irrepressible smarts, integrity and fearless candour as their debut but as you’d expect of any young band five years on, their sound has evolved, in Amy’s words it’s ‘raw self expression, defiant energy and unapologetic vulnerability.’

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: An expectedly hefty new one from Amyl And The Sniffers sees the Melbourne four-piece continue their brutal domination of the modern punk scene with this wonderfully acerbic, incendiary slice of slashing modern punk rock. There's a reason the band have garnered such a following, and this LP shows everyone why.

TRACK LISTING

Guided By Angels
Freaks To The Front
Choices
Security
Hertz
No More Tears
Maggot
Capital
Don't Fence Me In
Knifey
Don't Need A Cunt (Like You To Love Me)
Laughing
Snakes

The debut album from Amyl and the Sniffers is the sound of 21st century Australia recorded in Sheffield with producer Ross Orton. It's primal and explosive with a love of glam, the 70's Sharpie movement and good time rock n roll backed with lyrics that somehow are simultaneously bleak and nihilistic, yet humorous and celebratory. The album is full of beefy riffs and stomping drums that rages and rolls and lives up to all the hype. It has attitude, sass and Amy's sore throat howl.

Coming off the back of a hair raising gig at London's Moth Club (the band 'almost literally tore the roof off'), Amyl And The Sniffers are certainly one to watch if you like feisty, independent punk-n-roll.

STAFF COMMENTS

Mine says: Gnarly, energetic garage Aussie punk that demands to be played loud. Like a cross between GØGGS and Be Your Own Pet, this is their debut long player on Rough Trade! Thrashing guitars and an irreverent band name - what more could you ask for?

TRACK LISTING

Starfire 500
Gacked On Anger
Cup Of Destiny
GFY
Angel
Monsoon Rock
Control
Got You
Punisha
Shake Ya
Some Mutts (Can't Be Muzzled)