Protomartyr have remained one of the most consistent post-punk/rock and roll bands over the last nearly 15 years. Along with bands like METZ and Preoccupations, Protomartyr have kept post-punk still an interesting corner of the music world. Not only a tight band, but singer Joe Casey is one of the best lyricists. He speaks like a disgruntled street poet laureate, delivering scathing prose about society and personal foibles.
Every record built from and beyond what came before it, and with 2023s masterpiece Formal Growth In The Desert it was apparent Protomartyr were moving beyond genre and going for best band in the universe.
We now have Hotel Usona, an absolute tour de force of a record. Conceptually rich and musically Herculean, it’s the band’s biggest leap sonically and narratively. Written like some series of hotel stories, but if it was at the end of the world, Joe Casey has evolved into one of the great front men, waxing poetic to a dying world. And with Dave Fridmann producing this is the biggest sounding Protomartyr, complete with horn sections that give it all a hard boiled feel.
If Iggy Pop says that your band is “kind of like Jesus”, then you must be. With words of praise from the great Iggy, Hotel Usona rolls over you in a series of nine immense tracks. “The Old Hotel” feels haunted and dramatic with its sad chords and immense vocals of Joe Casey. This is one hell of an opener. “Sounds We Cannot Hear” is hedonistic in tone, like a monster storm blowing in. This is the biggest Protomartyr have sounded. “Converts” is almost jaunty with it’s island vibes and Terence Blanchard-sounding horns. “Exalted Eagles” has this retro futuristic feel, like Talk Talk meets punk rock anarchy.
Hotel Usona never relents; from the noir-ish “The Knife Dream” to the dirge of “Feed The Sewer” to cinematic “Third Country” each song feels like a journey. Each song a chapter in a book of pulpy tales. And closer “Checking Out” is the noisy, blistering end we deserve.
If Protomartyr still aren’t your favorite band, Hotel Usona should fix that. One of the best albums of the year.
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