Protomartyr’s taut, austere rock was incubated in a freezing Detroit warehouse littered with beer cans and cigarette butts and warmed, feebly, by space heaters. Despite the cold, Protomartyr emerged with a sound that is idiosyncratic but relatable, hooky but off-kilter, and economical in a way that elicits comparisons to possible antecedents like Pere Ubu or The Fall as well as local contemporaries like Frustrations or Tyvek -- all of which have combined here to make one stunner of a sophomore album, and the band's first for Hardly Art.
1 Maidenhead
2 Ain't So Simple
3 Want Remover
4 Trust Me Billy
5 Pagans
6 What the Wall Said
7 Tarpeian Rock
8 Bad Advice
9 Son of Dis
10 Scum, Rise!
11 I Stare at Floors
12 Come & See
13 Violent
14 I'll Take That Applause