Amyl and the Sniffers
Cartoon Darkness
**** out of *****
On the band's third album Cartoon Darkness, Amyl and the Sniffers continue to twist and turn their punk rock sounds, maturing, but not really growing up, which fits the Melbourne, Australia based band just fine.
The quartet of Amy Taylor- vocals, Bryce Wilson- drums, Dec Martens- guitar, Gus Romer- bass, gained world wide recognition with their previous release, the rock solid Comfort To Me and their power and catchiness continues on Cartoon Darkness. The groups combo of heavy/sweet, pub rock/punk keeps on flowing as Taylor in particular is making her name as one of the best frontwomen in the genre.
Opener "Jerkin'" is a perfect encapsulation of the band's style and strengths as Taylor lashes out aggressively at critics, haters and internet trolls (who get a proper airing throughout the record) spitting her snotty vocals while the group uses stop/start punk movements in the vein of the Buzzcocks.
While the group can get blisteringly heavy, such as on the raw hardcore soaked banger "It's Mine", or move more tender, like with the flirting with glam rock ballad sound of "Big Dreams", their best efforts seem to be a combo of influences. That rock genre mixing shows up in a trio of tunes in the middle of the album with fantastic results.
"Motorbike Song" may just be the band's highpoint with a revved up punk engine, screeching guitar work and 80's hair metal spice flowing throughout while the angsty "Doing In My Head" has a big head banging middle section and shout along chorus. The super fast, upbeat bopping of "Pigs" has splashes of Bad Brains mixed in with the grooving and blasting.
All those tunes are great and show Amyl and Sniffers confidence as a band, but they also spread their wings a bit and shift gears to close. The second half of Cartoon Darkness moves into post punk territory as the big bass groove, along with much softer singing from Taylor, kicks off "Bailing On Me" while "U Should Not Be Doing That" keeps the same dance rock beat flowing. The heavy rumbling of "Going Somewhere" shakes speakers while the catchy pop punk with background vocals of "Do It Do It" is a joy.
The band wraps up with more dance ready new wave/post-punk as Taylor gets as feral as ever during the spacey "Me And The Girls" with her bratty, confident rapping style over squirrely layers of sound, closing a strong album on a high note. Amyl and Sniffers look to be a major mover and shaker on the punk/rock scene and with stacked albums like Cartoon Darkness things are looking mighty bright for their future.
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definitely a good record from these guys...they don't try to break too much new ground but they definitely push it a bit...fun to listen to them grow...slamming raw album that i'll listen to more than once... liked it a lot.
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