# Cartoon Darkness

Cartoon Darkness is the third studio album by Australian pub rock and punk band Amyl and the Sniffers. It was released on 25 October 2024 through B2B Records and Virgin Music Group. It is the band's first studio album since 2021's Comfort to Me.
The album was preceded by the singles and music videos for "U Should Not Be Doing That", "Chewing Gum", "Big Dreams" and "Jerkin'". The music video for "Jerkin'" was released through the band's website because of its graphic full frontal nudity throughout the video. A disclaimer was issued for it to be viewed by adults 18 years and older. A censored version was also released on YouTube.
At the 2024 J Awards, the album was nominated for Australian Album of the Year. The album was nominated for the 2024 Australian Music Prize. The album was shorted listed for Best LP/EP at the 2025 Rolling Stone Australia Awards.

## Background

Singer Amy Taylor said of the album,
   Cartoon Darkness is about climate crisis, war, A.I., tiptoeing on the eggshells of politics, and people feeling like they're helping by having a voice online when we're all just feeding the data beast of Big Tech, our modern-day god. It's about the fact that our generation is spoon-fed information. We look like adults, but we're children forever cocooned in a shell. We're all passively gulping up distractions that don't even cause pleasure, sensation or joy, they just cause numbness. Cartoon Darkness is driving headfirst into the unknown, into this looming sketch of the future that feels terrible but doesn't even exist yet. A childlike darkness. I don't want to meet the devil half-way and mourn what we have right now. The future is cartoon, the prescription is dark, but it's novelty. It's just a joke. It's fun.

## Critical reception

Professional ratings :
| Aggregate scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 81/100 |
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Clash | 9/10 |
| The Line of Best Fit | 9/10 |
| Pitchfork | 6.8/10 |
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Cartoon Darkness received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 81 out of 100 from 15 critic scores.

### Year-end lists

Select year-end rankings for Cartoon Darkness :
| Publication/critic | Accolade | Rank |
| BBC Radio 6 Music | 26 Albums of the Year 2024 | - |
| MOJO | 75 Best Albums of 2024 | 34 |
| Rough Trade UK | Albums of the Year 2024 | 7 |

## Track listing

All lyrics are written by Amy Taylor.

## Personnel

Amyl and the Sniffers
* Amy Taylor – vocals
* Declan Mehrtens – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
* Gus Romer – bass, backing vocals
* Bryce Wilson – drums, backing vocals
Additional contributors
* Nick Launay – production, recording, mixing
* Bernie Grundman – mastering
* Oliver Roman – additional engineering
* Charlie LoPresti – studio assistance
* Jerred Polacci – studio assistance
* Atom Greenspan – additional sound warping
* Harry Cooper – saxophone on "U Should Not Be Doing That"
* Barnaby Clay – harp on "Me and the Girls"
* John Stewart – photography
* Olivia Jaffe – photography assistance
* Thomas Ronnie – artwork

## Charts
### Weekly charts

Chart performance for Cartoon Darkness :
| Chart (2024) | Peak position |
| Australian Albums (ARIA) | 2 |
| Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) | 37 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) | 63 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) | 144 |
| French Albums (SNEP) | 55 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) | 9 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) | 17 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC) | 8 |
| Swedish Physical Albums (Sverigetopplistan) | 12 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) | 45 |
| UK Albums (OCC) | 9 |
| UK Independent Albums (OCC) | 2 |
| UK Rock & Metal Albums (OCC) | 1 |
| US Billboard 200 | 196 |

### Year-end charts

2024 year-end chart performance for '"Cartoon Darkness :
| Chart (2024) | Position |
| Australian Artist Albums (ARIA) | 10 |