Protomartyr: new album "Hotel Usona" on the way. Here's the video for the single "Sounds We Cannot Hear"

Protomartyr have announced “Hotel Usona”, their seventh studio album, out September 25 via Domino Recording Company. The record arrives just over three years after “Formal Growth In The Desert” and was recorded at Tarbox Road Studios in New York, produced by Dave Fridmann, who has previously worked 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, layered work. The concept envisions the United States as a decaying old hotel, where every room harbors the fears, contradictions and ghosts of Western society. Rather than an easy listen, the new record stands as an invitation to reflection, confronting the darker side of the West with the group's usual lucid, disenchanted gaze.
Musically, guitarist Greg Ahee further broadens the Protomartyr sound palette, weaving in Middle Eastern influences and nods to Fifties exotica, striking a constant balance between tension and beauty. Dave Fridmann's production heightens the record's visionary, cinematic quality, while his son Jon Fridmann handles the brass arrangements.

The album is preceded by the single “Sounds We Cannot Hear”, accompanied by a video directed by Danny Scharar and Harry Mayersohn and starring actor Nate Varrone, previously seen in the series “The Bear”. The track opens with dark, dramatic atmospheres before alternating moments of suspension with sudden melodic openings, enriched by a trumpet solo and horn interventions. The lyrics reflect on the paralysis of modern life and on how constant scrolling is reshaping our relationship with everyday reality, while the video offers a hallucinatory portrayal of the psychosis of a man addicted to cocaine.

Among the record's earliest admirers is Iggy Pop, who has described “Hotel Usona” as an almost “Wagnerian” achievement, praising its rhythmic power, harmonic richness and songwriting that reveals new details with every listen.
Following the album's release, Protomartyr will embark on a world tour with shows in the United States, the UK, Europe and Canada. A European tour has also already been announced for February 2027, which at present does not include dates in Italy.
Here is the tracklist for “Hotel Usona”

1. The Old Hotel
2. Sounds We Cannot Hear
3. Converts
4. Exalted Eagles
5. The Knife Dream
6. Feed the Sewer
7. Lavender – Gospel
8. Third Country
9. Checking Out

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