Protomartyr

Protomartyr return with Hotel Usona, their seventh album and first since 2023’s Formal Growth in the Desert. The record arrives September 25, 2026 via Domino and finds the Detroit band confronting the unease, paralysis, and absurdity of the present moment through an image of the United States as an aging hotel, each song opening the door on another troubled guest.

The album was recorded with producer Dave Fridmann at Tarbox Road Studios in western New York, with Greg Ahee serving as co-producer. Ahee’s arrangements draw new influence from Middle Eastern music and 1950s exotica, while Alex Leonard’s drumming, Scott Davidson’s bass, and Joe Casey’s vocals give the songs a physical, unsettled weight. Fridmann’s son Jon also contributes horns.

Lead single “Sounds We Cannot Hear” captures the album’s sense of modern overload and slow-moving dread. Its accompanying video stars Nate Varrone, and the song serves as an early look at a record Iggy Pop described as highly themed, symphonic, and “Wagnerian” in reach.