Ask singer Amy Taylor about the themes of Australian pub punks Amyl And The Sniffers’ third album and she’ll cite climate change, AI, war and the cocooned isolationism of Big Tech life. Listen to the record, though, and you’ll find her maniacally yelping abuse at an ‘arsehole’ who just wants to ‘hit it’ (Jerkin’), craving sex on a Harley (Motorbike Song) and demanding to be able to wear a bikini and shorts without judgement (Tiny Bikini).
If the band’s grander statements are buried beneath the record’s bursts of crushing speed-punk and pounding buzz-rock, though, their vivifying passion and excitement for a genre too often ploughed through like a chore makes it utterly forgivable. Depths do emerge: Big Dreams documents, in glowering country-noir tones, the chains and frustrations of breadline living; Taylor’s relationship woes – unfaithful, controlling or departing lovers abound – are given doomy and dramatic punk backings on U Should Not Be Doing That, Bailing On Me and Going Somewhere. It’s the visceral attitude that has carried this band to the vanguard of modern punk, though, and there’s no let-up here.
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