Amyl and the Sniffers – Cartoon Darkness

Listening to Amyl and the Sniffers feels like hurtling down the motorway on a stolen motorbike in denim cutoffs and a bikini top, necking a beer, while screaming. So it’s a good thing their third album, Cartoon Darkness, is about doing all of those things. 

There’s plenty of the usual Amyl fare here, with some absolute stompers right out of the gate. Opener Jerkin’ is mental (we’d love to see another song this year with lyrics about fucking spiders), a full-on sonic assault that reminds you Amy Taylor is no stranger to tearing up a stage. 

Just as the record threatens to feel repetitive, we reach the back half, with songs like Bailing On Me, a melodic, swaying admonishment of a former lover, and the wonderfully bratty U Should Not Be Doing That, a tongue-in-cheek fuck you to the men who try strip Taylor of her autonomy and power, full of her signature shouty vocals that turn words on their heads, bending and twisting until they’re something magnificently weird. But the highlight has got to be closing track Me and the Girls, a no holds barred takedown of ‘frumpy, grumpy’ boys; it’s a celebration of how great it is to be a woman, in all our free, fun and angry glory.

Listen to: U Should Not Be Doing That, Me and the Girls, Tiny Bikini