After tight covid-based travel restrictions in Australia are slightly eased, giants of garage punk Amyl and the Sniffers are finally able to tour their latest album Comfort to Me, which was released through Rough Trade back in September. 

The album was released to both commercial and critical acclaim, reaching number 21 in the UK album charts and number 2 in Australia. Comfort to Me is the group’s second full-length studio album, following their self-titled debut in 2019, and was produced over lockdown with a star-studded production crew including mixing by Nick Launay (Nick Cave, IDLES, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and was mastered by Bernie Grundman (Michael Jackson, Prince, Dr Dre). It feels like a much more mature and technically skilled album – both musically and lyrically – in comparison to the rough and ready DIY feel of the band’s initial EP’s Giddy Up (2016) and Big Attraction (2017). The band commented on their development as band during this album, saying “The nihilistic, live in the moment, positivity and panel beater rock-meets-shed show punk was still there, but it was better. The whole thing was less spontaneous and more darkly considered.”. Comfort to Me calls upon a vast range of musical influences from lesser known (in the UK, at least) Australian garage bands like Cosmic Psychos to classic rock like AC/DC. Their hometown influences are particularly evident on tracks like ‘No More Tears’. With the great success of this new album, in addition to two sold-out shows at the Electric Ballroom in Camden this month, Amyl and the Sniffers are clearly a band at the top of their game. 

2022 is set to be a busy year for the Aussie quartet, with a handful of Australian shows in January and February followed by a huge tour of North America from April to May. The band has now also announced a tour of England in May and June – which they will kick off with a visit to The Stylus in Leeds on the 29th of May. Tickets for that show are available here, from the 26th of November at 10am. The group has not visited West Yorkshire since June of 2019 when they played an incredible outdoor set supporting Mac DeMarco in the sweltering summer heat of Halifax’s Piece Hall. With all the well-deserved hype surrounding the band, plus a full album of new material, their new tour is certainly not one to be missed!