The Agent Intellect

Joe Casey brings family memory and loss into The Agent Intellect, Protomartyr's third album. His delivery can sound half-spoken and resistant to the beat, while Greg Ahee's guitar and the rhythm section keep the songs in sharp, uneasy motion.

“Why Does It Shake?” begins with a direct address to the body and its limits. “Ellen” gives the record a longer, more personal centre, allowing repetition to accumulate weight. The lean production leaves Casey's words exposed, but the band's changes in pressure do as much of the storytelling as the vocal.