Amyl And The Sniffers Announces “Comfort To Me” Expanded Edition
Today, Amyl & the Sniffers announce a new expanded edition of their globally-revered sophomore album Comfort To Me – out May 13 via the band’s own B2B Records / Virgin Music Australia.
The record debuted at #2 on the ARIA Chart, and smashed US hit-lists including #1 on Billboard’s Alternative New Albums chart, #2 on both Heatseekers and Top New Artists Albums, #4 on Independent Albums, #7 on Rock Albums, #9 on Alternative Albums, and made the Top 20 on the Album Sales chart. Across the pond, it made BBC 6 Music’s Album of the Day (UK), also hailed triple j’s Feature Album and a royal flush of Features at Australian Community Radio.
Comfort To Me (Expanded Edition) includes 2x LP’s on clear smoke vinyl, featuring the original album and a bonus live LP recorded on a dock outside of Melbourne; a fold-out poster, and new artwork by graphic designer Bráulio Amado. Check out the band’s ferocious, high-energy show, as exhibited on the expanded version’s Disc 2, with a live version of new single Maggot – out today…
Comfort To Me, which was co-produced by the band and Dan Luscombe, is the follow up to Amyl and The Sniffers’ self-titled debut album of 2019, which won the ARIA Award for Best Rock Album and saw the band tour internationally for two years. Next week, The Sniffers will make a triumphant return to the US – an almost entirely sold-out affair, including Coachella and Shaky Knees – for the first time in three years, following the world’s longest lockdown in their native Melbourne. They’ll be back in Australia for Splendour in the Grass in July.
With its lyrics largely written during the Australian Bushfire season, when The Sniffers were already wearing masks to protect themselves from smoke in the air, Comfort To Me came together in a 3-bedroom apartment where the four band members quarantined together during COVID-19 lockdown. “This album is just us — raw self expression, defiant energy, unapologetic vulnerability,” Taylor explains. “It was written by four self-taught musicians who are all just trying to get by and have a good time.”
The weight of the past two years is palpable on Comfort To Me: “After the Bushfire season, and when the pandemic hit, our options were the same as everyone: go find a day job and work in intense conditions or sit at home and drown in introspection. I fell into the latter category,” Taylor says. “I had all this energy inside of me and nowhere to put it, because I couldn’t perform, and it had a hectic effect on my brain. Having to deal with a lot of authority during 2020 and realising my lack of power made me feel both more self destructive and more self disciplined, more nihilistic and more depressed and more resentful, which ultimately fuelled me with a kind of relentless motivation. I became a temporary monster. I partied more, but I also exercised heaps, read books and ate veggies. I was like an egg going into boiling water when this started, gooey and weak but with a hard surface. I came out even harder. I’m still soft on the inside, but in a different way. My brain evolved and warped and my way of thinking about the world completely changed.”
Within that chaos, the band found comfort. Given the unexpected luxury of time on their hands in 2020, the band – rounded out by guitarist Dec Martens, bassist Gus Romer, and drummer Bryce Wilson—was able to cut songs they didn’t love, and refine the ones they did, with the added help of mixer Nick Launay (Nick Cave, IDLES, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and mastering by Bernie Grundman (Prince, Michael Jackson, Dr. Dre, OutKast). The result is an absolute triumph: an incredibly cathartic record that will slap you in the face, peer straight into your soul, and give you a second wind to keep going no matter how shitty things get.
DISC 1
A01 Guided By Angels
A02 Freaks To The Front
A03 Choices
A04 Security
A05 Hertz
A06 No More Tears
A07 Maggot
B08 Capitol
B09 Don’t Fence Me In
B10 Knifey
B11 Don’t Need A C*nt
(Like You To Love Me)
B12 Laughing
B13 Snake
DISC 2
A01 Guided By Angels (Live)
A02 Freaks To The Front (Live)
A03 Choices (Live)
A04 Security (Live)
A05 Hertz (Live)
A06 No More Tears (Live)
A07 Maggot (Live)
B08 Capitol (Live)
B09 Don’t Fence Me In (Live)
B10 Knifey (Live)
B11 Don’t Need A C*nt
(Like You To Love Me) (Live)
B12 Laughing (Live)
B13 Snakes (Live)
B14 Crave (Live)
