Album Review: Amyl & The Sniffers - "Comfort To Me"

 

Although it certainly got its share of plaudits in the press, I'll hold my hands up and say that I was a bit underwhelmed by Amyl & The Sniffers' 2019 debut album. To these ears, it sounded like the work of a band who'd been rushed into a studio to make a record before they were really ready and despite its undeniable energy, it didn't have a lot in the way of variety and quickly started to repeat itself by the time you reached its second half.

Everyone deserves a second chance though and, to be fair, Comfort To Me represents a definite step forward for Amyl & the Sniffers. The group have clearly used their experience gained over the last couple of years to start to hone their sound and slowly move away from the shouty two chord repetitiveness of their debut without shifting too much to alienate the people who came on board for that and the results, while not perfect, are certainly a bit more promising.

I think the key is that the rage on here sounds a lot more focused than it did before and it gives short sharp bursts of aggression like Freaks To The Front, the pro-feminism Laughing and Choices an added direction that the aimless spraffing of their debut didn't have with singer Amy sounding defiant and angry rather than as if she's just yelling her lungs out for the sake of it. The likes of Security and Don't Fence Me In see them adding a bit of nous to their sound with a bit more dexterity to the riffing and just enough subtlety to work while the ominous rumbling Knifey even sees Amy singing rather than shouting as she lays down a righteous tirade about violence against women. The X-Ray Spex meets Pussycat & The Dirty Johnsons style fury of Maggot and the barrelling anti-groper snarl of Capital even see them pair up both styles to good effect.

It's not all plain sailing - there's still a few moments here where they sink back to the atonalism of the first album (Hertz) or the attempts to progress the sound kind of fall flat (Guided By Angels, Snakes) but all in all, Comfort To Me represents a big leap forward for this band while staying true to their roots (as evidenced by the excellently titled ferocious blast of Don't Need A Cunt (Like You To Love Me)). Who knows, we might just make punk legends out of them yet...

Bandcamp Link

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌔🌑🌑🌑 (7/10)

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