Protomartyr announce new album, Hotel Usona

Hotel Usona was recorded with producer Dave Fridmann — who is credited for his work with Sleater-Kinney, MGMT, The Flaming Lips — at his Tarbox Road Studios in western New York, and finds the band grappling with the horrors of modern life. It follows 2023's Formal Growth In The Desert, with "Sounds We Cannot Hear" arrives as the first preview of the work, alongside a video starring Nate Varrone (The Bear).

For the album, multi-instrumentalist and producer Greg Ahee has taken influence from the Middle East and 1950s exotica for the songs, which also feature horns from Fridmann's son Jon. The band have also been championed by none other than Iggy Pop, who says: "So then there is Protomartyr the band. Four guys who are very, very skilled musicians and creators who I suspect would be totally fucked without the intervention of their talents, which are considerable. They are, to put it crudely, a kind of rock band out of Detroit. That's a subject I know something about."

"And they've made a new album. It is highly themed and symphonic in its reach," he continues. "I could call it a kind of drive-through Sgt. Peppers, but that would miss the mark. This record is Wagnerian, it reminds me very much of the Opera Tristan and Isolde (by Richard Wagner). Musically, it sounds modal, and kind of chromatic, like I imagine Celtic war horns might sound in some forgotten battle. The singer, Joe Casey, is blessed with a beautiful voice that you want to listen to, but he stays perverse enough to keep things interesting when he wants to get petulant or a little bitchy."

Hotel Usona artwork

Hotel Usona tracklist

“The Old Hotel”
“Sounds We Cannot Hear”
“Converts”
“Exalted Eagles”
“The Knife Dream”
“Feed the Sewer”
“Lavender – Gospel”
“Third Country”
“Checking Out”