Protomartyr have announced “Hotel Usona,” their seventh studio album, out September 25th via Domino Recording Company. The album arrives just over three years after “Formal Growth In The Desert” and was recorded at Tarbox Road Studios in New York with the production of Dave Fridmann, already working with artists such as The Flaming Lips, MGMT and Sleater-Kinney.
With “Hotel Usona”, the Detroit band continues its exploration of the anxieties of the contemporary world through an intense and layered work. The concept imagine the United States as an old hotel in decay, in which every room holds the fears, contradictions and ghosts of Western society. More than an easy-to-use record, the new work presents itself as an invitation to reflection, tackling the darkest side of the West with the group's usual lucid and disenchanted gaze.
On a musical level, guitarist Greg Ahee further broadens Protomartyr's sound palette, inserting influences from Middle Eastern music and references to the exotica of the 1950s, in a constant balance between tension and beauty. Dave Fridmann's production accentuates the visionary and cinematic character of the album, while his son Jon Fridmann signs the brass arrangements.
The album is anticipated by the single “Sounds We Cannot Hear”, accompanied by a video clip directed by Danny Scharar and Harry Mayersohn and performed by the actor Nate Varrone, already seen in the series “The Bear”. The piece opens with dark and dramatic atmospheres and then alternates moments of suspension with sudden melodic openings, enriched by a trumpet solo and the interventions of the wind instruments. The text reflects on the paralysis of modern life and how it scrolling continuous is changing the relationship with everyday reality, while the video offers a hallucinated representation of the psychosis of a man addicted to cocaine.
Among the first admirers of the album was also Iggy Pop, who defined “Hotel Usona” as a work with an almost “Wagnerian” scope, praising its rhythmic strength, harmonic richness and writing capable of revealing new details with each listen.
Following the album's release, Protomartyr will embark on a world tour with concerts in the US, UK, Europe and Canada. A European tour scheduled for February 2027 has also already been announced, which currently does not include dates in Italy.
Here is the tracklist of “Hotel Usona”
- The Old Hotel
- Sounds We Cannot Hear
- Converts
- Exalted Eagles
- The Knife Dream
- Feed the Sower
- Lavender – Gospel
- Third Country
- Checking Out
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
