Formal Growth in the Desert is the sixth studio album by American post-punk band Protomartyr, released on June 2, 2023 on Domino Records. Produced by guitarist Greg Ahee and Jake Aron, the album was recorded over two weeks in August 2022 at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas.
Preceded by the singles, "Make Way", "Elimination Dances" and "Polacrilex Kid", the album was released to critical acclaim, with its lyrical content influenced by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, which had affected the release of the band's previous studio album, Ultimate Success Today (2020); the death of frontman Joe Casey's mother, and his recent engagement.
Contents
Background and recording
Protomartyr released their fifth studio album, Ultimate Success Today, in July 2020 in the midst of global COVID-19 lockdowns. Unable to tour in support of the album, the band entered an unplanned hiatus, with the uncertainty of the pandemic leading frontman Joe Casey to question whether the band could continue due to the financial pressures. With the eventual easing of travel restrictions, the band reconvened in late 2021 and 2022 to tour with Kelley Deal on additional guitar.
The band soon began work on Formal Growth in the Desert, with Casey noting that his prior public speculation on whether the band could continue ultimately lead to the band members embracing a new lease of life during the writing and recording period: "We could just work on music. That gave us an out where we could start afresh, and it released the pressure of coming off a year of not doing shit and then being forced to recapture the magic." During the writing process, the band was directly influenced by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with Casey wanting to present a mostly positive outlook in its aftermath. One of the central themes of the album asked, "What are realistic ways to continue living after something like that?"
Writing and composition
The album's opening track and first single, "Make Way", is in the same musical key as "Worm in Heaven", the closing track to the band's previous studio album, Ultimate Success Today (2020), which frontman Joe Casey described as a "funeral song". Reflecting on "Make Way" following that track chronologically in the band's catalogue, Casey stated: "I just figured that after the years of COVID where millions of people died and everybody was face to face with mortality, the living still have to exist, in a non-religious sort of rapture way. Everybody’s gone, and now the people that remain have to continue on." The album's second track, "For Tomorrow", is described as a "lazy, depressed person’s anthem."
Critical reception
At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Formal Growth in the Desert received a rating of 80 out of 100 based on thirteen critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Personnel
Adapted from album liner notes:
Protomartyr
Joe Casey – vocals
Greg Ahee – guitars, synth
Alex Leonard – drums
Scott Davidson – bass guitar
Guest musicians
Bill Radcliffe – pedal steel
Additional credits
Jake Aron – recording engineer, mixing
Sarah Register – master
Mario Ramirez – assistant engineer
Nat Chernitsky Rittner – assistant engineer
Diego Mendoza – assistant engineer
Trevor Naud – photos
Nicholas Kitakis – cover model
Breonna Phillips – cover model
Joe Casey (credited as "JKB Casey") – layout
Jeff Arcel – layout