Amyl and the Sniffers on Vinyl: Where to Start and Where to Go Next

Amyl and the Sniffers started in Melbourne in 2016 as four housemates in the suburb of Balaclava who wrote, recorded and released their first EP, Giddy Up, inside twelve hours. That speed is still the point. Amy Taylor sings like she is settling an argument, Declan Mehrtens plays guitar with no interest in subtlety, Bryce Wilson hits the drums flat out, and Gus Romer, who took over on bass in early 2017, holds the bottom end down while the rest of it goes sideways.

What makes the catalog worth collecting is how far they travelled without going soft. The early EPs were Australian pub rock played at punk speed and mixed rough. By 2019 they were in Sheffield with Ross Orton. By 2021 they were back home at Soundpark in Melbourne with Dan Luscombe, writing the record that turned Taylor into one of the best lyricists in the genre. By 2024 they were in Los Angeles with Nick Launay, a producer who has spent forty years recording bands that shout, and the songs had grown teeth in new places.

The run at GOOD TASTE Records covers the whole of it: the two early EPs collected on one LP, the three studio albums, and the live record cut in a Los Angeles bar that landed on the shelf this week. Five albums, no gaps.

Amyl & The Sniffers - Giddy Up/Big Attraction (10th Anniversary)

Giddy Up came out in 2016, Big Attraction in February 2017, and the London label Damaged Goods paired them on a single LP later that year. Virgin put the set back in print in May 2026 for its tenth anniversary. This is the band before anyone outside Melbourne was paying attention, twelve tracks of garage punk and pub rock with the tape hiss left in, and it is the only place on this shelf to hear where the whole thing came from. Giddy Up/Big Attraction is the origin document.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Both early EPs on one LP, the 2017 Damaged Goods pairing reissued by Virgin in 2026
• The rawest recordings in the catalog, cut fast and left that way
• The clearest line from Australian pub rock to what the band does now

Amyl & The Sniffers - Amyl & The Sniffers (self-titled)

Ross Orton produced, recorded and mixed the debut at McCall Sound in Sheffield, and it arrived on 24 May 2019 through Flightless at home and Rough Trade and ATO abroad. Eleven songs in under half an hour, built on "Got You," "Gacked on Anger," "Some Mutts (Can't Be Muzzled)" and "Monsoon Rock," with Orton giving the band an actual low end for the first time without sanding anything down. Amyl & The Sniffers is the short, mean one.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• The Ross Orton session at McCall Sound, Sheffield, released May 2019
• Eleven songs in roughly twenty-eight minutes, no filler to skip
• The first record where the rhythm section sounds as big as the vocals

Amyl & The Sniffers - Comfort To Me

Written through Melbourne's long 2020 and recorded at Soundpark in the city, produced by the band with Dan Luscombe, mixed by Nick Launay and mastered by Bernie Grundman, this came out on 10 September 2021. It is the record where Taylor's writing caught up with the volume: "Guided by Angels," "Security," "Hertz" and "Knifey" are funny, furious and specific in a way punk rarely bothers to be. Comfort To Me is the one to start with if you only take one home.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Produced by the band with Dan Luscombe at Soundpark, Melbourne, September 2021
• Mixed by Nick Launay and mastered by Bernie Grundman, the best-sounding record here
• "Knifey" and "Hertz" in one sequence, the band's sharpest writing

Amyl & The Sniffers - Cartoon Darkness

Nick Launay moved from the mixing desk to the producer's chair for the third album, cut in Los Angeles at Studio 606 and released on 25 October 2024 through B2B Records and Virgin Music Group. "U Should Not Be Doing That," "Chewing Gum," "Big Dreams" and "Jerkin'" widen the range without losing the speed, and Taylor spends a lot of it writing about living inside other people's opinions. We carry three pressings: the Cartoon Black Edition, a colored pressing, and a pink pressing.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Nick Launay production at Studio 606 in Los Angeles, October 2024
• The widest set of tempos and textures the band has put on one record
• Three pressings on the shelf, including two colored editions

Amyl & The Sniffers - Truth or Consequence (Live from El Coyote)

On 28 April 2025 the band played El Coyote, a Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles, and reworked their own songs as country tunes in front of a room that got louder as the night went on. Rough Trade released the recording on 4 September 2026, and it includes two songs that exist nowhere else plus a cover of Slim Dusty's "Lights on the Hill." Longtime collaborator John Angus Stewart filmed it. Truth or Consequence is the newest thing here and the strangest.

Why it's worth purchasing:

• Recorded live at El Coyote, Los Angeles, April 2025, issued by Rough Trade in September 2026
• Two unreleased songs and a Slim Dusty cover, "Lights on the Hill"
• The band's catalog rebuilt as country, which should not work and does

Where else to look

Two live EPs sit outside this shelf. Live at the Croxton came out in 2020 and Live at the Fonda in 2024, both through Rough Trade, and both are worth tracking down if the El Coyote record sends you looking for the band at full throttle rather than half speed. What we carry is the five albums above.

If You Like Amyl and the Sniffers

• Idles: the Bristol band working the same nerve from the other side of the world, from Brutalism and Joy As An Act of Resistance through TANGK.
• Fontaines D.C.: Dublin post-punk with the same instinct for a plain spoken line, from Dogrel to Dopamine Chamber.
• The Stooges: the Detroit source code for all of this, and Fun House in particular.
• Wet Leg: lighter on its feet and funnier on the surface, but built on the same guitar and the same deadpan.
• The Hives: Swedish garage rock run like a stage show, for when you want the swagger without the grime.

For the wider picture, our Essential Punk on Vinyl starter guide covers the records this band grew out of. From there, browse the Punk and Alternative Rock collections, or see everything by the band in one place in the Amyl & The Sniffers collection.