‘Chewing Gum’: Amyl and the Sniffers take pub rock to stadium status as they announce ‘Cartoon Darkness’

Name: Amyl and the Sniffers - Chewing Gum
Rating: 4

Lucy Harbron

Wed 21 August 2024 18:30, UK

Amyl and the Sniffers - 'Chewing Gum'

Beloved Aussie punks Amyl and the Sniffers are back as they announce their long-awaited third album, Cartoon Darkness. Landing on October 25th, 2024, the group have offered up the second taster of the record in the form of ‘Chewing Gum’, a high-octane anthem, reconciling the old tradition of choosing the wrong path in the pursuit of freedom and fun.

After forming in Melbourne back when the members were just a set of rowdy housemates, they established themselves as a vital part of their city’s thriving scene, capturing and elevating that classic Australian pub rock sound. As the years have rolled on, and by the time their second album Comfort To Me arrived in 2021, their energy was expansive and broad yet utterly singular. Having cited names like The Stooges, Sleaford Mods, AC/DC, and even Dolly Parton as reference points, their resulting sound is a melting point that mixes into something different and gripping.

On the first teaser for the new album, ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’, the band proved they had levelled up yet again. While maintaining the roaring, high-energy carnage that their fans crave, the sound feels more refined, shining a crisper spotlight on singer Amy Taylor’s lyricism. Now, with ‘Chewing Gum’, it’s clear that the band have something to say, and they’re here to make you hear it, where you’d like to or not.

That’s not to say that they’ve chilled out. In fact, ‘Chewing Gum’ is loud enough to compete with any of their earlier anthems, sure to become a huge moment in their live sets. But the sound is less thrashing and more theatrical in a way, feeling like a theme tune for a big-budget action movie where explosions should be going off in the distance.

Lyrically, too, the track packs a punch as they grapple with life’s futility and try to find a through-path to make it manageable. “The adversity of life is desire never fulfilled,” Taylor said of the song, “Life is work, life is not free, we can never work enough because the end goal doesn’t exist, so all we can do is choose to be wrong.” To her, this is an anthem that pioneers the wrong path and implores listeners to set about “choosing to be dumb and choosing love, despite everything.”

These big messages are set to characterise the upcoming record as the band tackle topics of war, climate crisis the rise of AI and the way the internet controls us more and more each day. It’s a punk record for a period of information overload, with the band feeling like the perfect outfit to balance meaningful messages with exactly the kind of energising, electrifying music our bodies need more than ever.

They might have started out in pubs, but their gritty vitality begs for the biggest stages now. Having funs is being taken rather seriously by Amyl and the Sniffers, and that couldn’t be more timely.

If ‘Chewing Gum’ and ‘U Should Not Be Doing That’ are anything to go off, the quality will be high with Cartoon Darkness instantly becoming a release to look forward to. October 25th can’t come soon enough.