Review: Protomartyr – The Agent Intellect

Protomartyr
The Agent Intellect

Hardly Art
Street: 10.09
Protomartyr = The Fall + Interpol

With the machine-like drumming style of Stephen Morris (Joy Division/New Order), Protomartyr’s third album got off to a good start with me. At first listen, I didn’t dig the vocals all that much, but as the album progressed, singer Joe Casey’s voice grew on me. There’s a good variety of tracks, too, each of them as cool and melodic as the next. “Pontiac 87” is by far my favorite song on the album—I knew that from the opening guitar riff. What I like about The Agent Intellect is that it doesn’t short the listener. It’s got 12 tracks, the lengthy ones outnumbering the shorter. The bridge in each of those tracks have a lot of contrast—to the point where you almost forget how the song started before you are quickly reminded. Anything with a post-punk feel is all right with me, and Protomartyr have got it. –Dylan Evans