“You’re a dumb c*nt, you’re an asshole – every time you talk you mumble”; as expectation goes, pure poetry there from lead singer Amy Taylor. Containing some of my favourite swear words, and the euphoric head rush energy of their namesake, the new album Cartoon Darkness marks the gloriously unsubtle return of the Sniffers.

Their previous album Comfort to Me was certainly a hard act to follow, thrusting Amyl and the Sniffers from incubating on the garage rock scene of Melbourne’s pubs onto the international stage of mainstream exposure. Hearing the high-powered likes of their song ‘Hertz’ on Radio 6 was my introduction to Amyl. Epitomising the agitation of being shut in the house (“Take me to the beach / Take me to the country”), Amyl and the Sniffers shook me out of my lockdown blues.

“Their ridiculing lyrics still put a boot to the neck of the male dominated scene of punk music”

But I couldn’t help wondering before listening to the 3rd album, how are Amyl and the Sniffers going to develop as a band (after signing to Virgin, living in LA) and continue to sound as punky and as fresh as they did back in 2021? The anticipatory curse of the 3rd album takes root. After producing two albums, it is often believed that all is revealed for a band’s future. Album three is a musical determiner – were the first two rowdy records a lucky fluke, or are the Sniffers in it for the long game?

In a press statement, Taylor announced that their new record would be like “A childlike darkness … the future is cartoon, the prescription is dark, but it’s novelty. It’s just a joke. It’s fun.” Mainly and reassuringly, their ridiculing lyrics still slice through body shamers, spit in the face of bigots and put a boot to the neck of the male dominated scene of punk music. They are full of energy (“good energy!”) and resolve.

Opening the album is a track both lyrically and sonically typical Amyl. For the most part, album three marks another day at the office for the band, with their disinterested single note guitar riffs and snappy profanity in crude, loud form are instantly recognisable. It’s hard to find an opening track more unapologetically confrontational and explosive than ‘Jerkin’. Immediately we are on Taylor’s side, you can’t help yelling along with her. With the release of their first single, ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’ way back in May, the band swing punches at groups of jealous Aussie gatekeepers vocal online about the band’s global rise. By employing the whinging cadence of Poly Styrene (X-Ray Spex), Taylor wonderfully vindicates the band’s roots by targeting haters with small town mindsets.

“Throwing up a two-finger salute, Taylor addresses those in a barbie baby-voice who still feel offended by her scantily clad appearance”

One of the successes of Cartoon Darkness is Taylor’s continued address of broader feminist issues. ‘Tiny Bikini’ is pure attitude. Throwing up a two-finger salute, Taylor addresses those in a barbie baby-voice who still feel offended by her scantily clad appearance. Punctuated with clobbering drums and sarcasm, she taunts “Ooh, if I didn’t show up in something spicy / The cold world would be even more icy”. She will wear her short shorts, and we will love it (even if you hate it)! Backed up by the band’s sneering “oohs”, The Sniffers raises a silly song to a chant of conviction for any night out.

However, breaking from the action of the more energetic, charged songs, ‘Big Dreams’ cuts into the album with a gloomy post-punk ballad. I mistook Amyl and The Sniffers for Courtney Barnett when played on the radio (odd considering the band’s usually brash, less palatable sound), as they change tone to meditate upon the cost-of-living crisis. Taylor’s vocal delivery does not feel as convincing in its dialled down, rawer state. Leaving behind their drums and bass guitar in the first half of the song, the bleak refrain of the song, ‘You wanna get out of here?’ moves away from the driving force of the album to hang uncertainly. The flow of the album’s confidence is interrupted. It feels like there is a conscious hesitance to the emerging softer side of the Sniffers, (with both our acceptance to a change in their approach and the gusto with which they approach it) but it is something we will likely see develop in albums to come.

So, have the Sniffers beaten the curse? Maybe. Personally, I would have been satisfied with another album full of Taylor’s rage with tracks like ‘Jerkin’’ and ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’. The ballads like ‘Big Dreams’ and ‘Bailing on Me’ have the concern but not the same drive behind them for me, so the album honestly feels a little uneven or disjointed. But whatever the weather, bare your teeth into a grin, don your tiniest bikini and jump headfirst into the Cartoon Darkness of Winter 2024.