After securing their status as one of Manchester's most exciting acts with their 2020 debut Architecture, and then consolidating the title with its 2021 follow-up The Art of Lying; new album Protagonists arrives as something of a new dawn for the four-piece. "This was our first straightforward album, which sounds strange given it's the third one. Our first album was a little bit of a back catalogue, and the rest was written in the same vein to have a coherent record. The second album was a complete stab in the dark and written and recorded during lockdown restrictions, but it broke us into the top 100. Protagonists feels like the first album where there's no pressure and one where we can cut loose." An album all about new beginnings, with a nod to the trials and tribulations of love, tricky family relationships and the feeling of being trapped by the past, Protagonists arrives as an attestation to a band sure of their own identity. Recorded and mixed by Michael Whalley and IST IST at Milkshed Studios, the album was mastered by the legendary Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound (The National, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Interpol).