Protomartyr Announce New Album Hotel Usona, Share “Sounds We Cannot Hear”: Stream
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Detroit post-punk band Protomartyr have announced their seventh studio album, Hotel Usona, due for release on 25th September via Domino, alongside a new track, "Sounds We Cannot Hear." The nine-track record follows 2023's Formal Growth in the Desert and sees frontman Joe Casey cast contemporary America as a decaying hotel, with each song representing a room haunted by a different troubled guest, continuing the band's habit of confronting collective unease through their music.
The album was recorded with producer Dave Fridmann, known for his work with Sleater-Kinney, MGMT and The Flaming Lips, at his Tarbox Road Studios in western New York, while multi-instrumentalist and co-producer Greg Ahee drew on Middle Eastern music and 1950s exotica to shape its sound. To mark the announcement, fellow Detroit musician Iggy Pop offered an effusive, unconventional endorsement in a written letter, comparing the record's ambitious, theatrical sweep to Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde and praising the band's musicianship.
- Protomartyr announce seventh album Hotel Usona, out 25th September via Domino
- New single "Sounds We Cannot Hear" shared alongside the announcement
- Iggy Pop likens the record to Wagner's Tristan and Isolde
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Protomartyr is a band from Detroit known for post-punk music, a style built on sparse, tense instrumentation and spoken or growled vocals rather than conventional singing. Formed in 2008, the group is led by singer and lyricist Joe Casey, and they have built a reputation over six previous albums for lyrics that dwell on unease, decay and American life. They release their music through Domino, an independent record label that also works with a range of well-known alternative acts.
The album being discussed is the band's seventh, and follows on from a record they put out in 2023. It was made with producer Dave Fridmann, a figure well known in alternative music circles for his work with bands such as The Flaming Lips, and with input from the band's own multi-instrumentalist, who helped shape its sound using influences from outside typical rock traditions.
The wider interest in this release comes partly from the band's established critical standing, and partly from an endorsement by Iggy Pop, a veteran musician also associated with Detroit, whose comments have drawn extra attention to the album ahead of its release.
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