Album Review: Amyl and The Sniffers, Cartoon Darkness

“You’re a dumb cunt / You’re an asshole / Every time you talk you mumble, grumble / Need to wipe your mouth after you speak cos it’s an asshole, bumhole / Dumb cunt, you are ugly all day / I am hot always”.

They may not keep the Ivor Novello judges awake at night, but there's no denying that the opening lines to ‘Jerkin’’, track one on Amyl and The Sniffers' third album Cartoon Darkness, are incredibly effective, especially when combined with in-your-face, crunchy guitars, pummelled drums and more attitude than a reform school for troubled teenagers.

Recorded with producer Nick Launay (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) at the Foo Fighters’ 606 Studios in Los Angeles in early 2024, the Melbourne punks’ third album brims over with short, ever-so-sharp staccato stabs of anger and angst.

The Sniffers can be catchy when they want to be, as evidenced by the mid-tempo ‘Bailing On Me’, the strident strut of ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’, and even the cartoon punk of ‘Me And The Girls’, while the hilarious ‘Doing In Me Head’ could be a Dublin anthem for the permanently annoyed.

But there is no denying their uncompromising bite. ‘Chewing Gum’ is a calling card for disaffected youth, singer Amy Taylor a snarling, knowing, nihilistic voice of a generation. She reminds this listener of Courtney Love on the brilliant ‘Big Dreams’, bedsit blues for Gen Z, while on ‘Tiny Bikini’, the singer affects a childlike accent, at odds with the sexualised lyrics, like a Barbie doll come to life, and ‘Pigs’ recalls the righteous anger of IDLES in full flow.

Blunt, brutal and often brilliant.

7/10