Amyl and the Sniffers, Cartoon Darkness: REVIEW

Amyl and the Sniffers, Cartoon Darkness (B2B/Virgin)

This Aussie four-piece has emerged as a ray of hope in a barren climate for true-blue rock music. On their third album, these punks from Melbourne — fronted by an absolute badass in Amy Taylor — are as wily and ferocious as ever, while also placing a bit less of an emphasis on the raw, no-holds-barred energy of their prior material, focusing more on melodies. Lead single “U Should Not Be Doing That” is a mid-tempo rocker mocking folks Down Under who talk shit about the band while they’re travelling the world and having a ball. Opening track “Jerkin’” is a snarling, foul-mouthed tone-setter for the rest of the project, while “Chewing Gum” is the kind of song built for Friday nights spent in gloriously dingy bars. It’s not too drastic an evolution from their first two LPs, but Cartoon Darkness is another potent and boundlessly confident body of work by Amyl and the Sniffers. 8/10 Trial Track: “U Should Not Be Doing That”

For more on Amyl and the Sniffers, please visit their website.

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