Protomartyr - Formal Growth in the Desert (2023), 4/10

While one may respect the musicianship and change in direction, Protomartyr’s former garage punk sound excels as opposed to the newfound doom and gothic rock sensibilities. This album consists of quality sound and presents as enjoyable enough, but records like Under Color of Official Right or Relatives in Descent play to the band’s strengths as a raw, noisy, existential yet sonically optimistic group. Joe’s vocals seem completely out of place half of the time against the surreal, dark instrumentation or just underwhelming in places. That said, there are some great performances in the mix like Joe’s charged passion in the latter half of “Fun in Hi Skool” or the whole group’s performance on sections of “3800 Tigers” and “Polacrilex Kid”. Considering these changes, it is still a step up after Ultimate Success Today, yet nothing special in the context of their entire discography. The album unfortunately sounds like a one-listen experience unworthy of revisitation.