Ultimate Success Today

On 'Ultimate Success Today', Protomartyr expands its dense post-punk by incorporating guest collaborators on woodwinds, cello, and flute, creating a more dynamic and spacious sound with prominent jazz-inflected textures. Vocalist Joe Casey delivers dark, often-improvised lyrics that grapple with themes of mortality, decay, and a sense of impending finality, born from personal anxiety. The album was critically lauded for this stylistic evolution and for how its tense, apocalyptic atmosphere presciently mirrored the global mood of its 2020 release, despite being recorded the previous year.