Marlone plays out like a fine black-and-white noir — a sound To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie has successfully cultivated and perfected over the course of four years. Theirs is a blend of industrial revolution and Mike Hammer fantasies, with Mark McGee’s electronic manipulations billowing out smoky melodies narrated by Jehna Wilhelm, the nameless lounge singer hiding in the shadows of the regular haunt of a fictional gumshoe. It’s a strange, sexy, and scary scene, beckoning us to pull up a stool and throw back a shot of bourbon as the cat and mouse unfolds between crooks and cops, lovers and fighters.
“You’ve Gone Too Far” is the entrance of our damsel in distress — the melody mimicking her cool and collected synchronized hip-swivel as the arthouse swing of the melody slowly gives way to the clanks and clatter of her multiple neuroses. “Villain” drapes the dubious detective in its rich tapestry with the arrogant filth of Pulp’s “This is Hardcore,” while our double-faced heroine coolly spins her yarn. It’s another sexy melody from the mind of McGee, who blankets Wilhelm’s sultry whisper with equally subtle waves of electronic drone.
As with any good storyteller, the duo slowly immerse the listener into the tale while also keeping them at a distance — you’ll fall in love with the characters and become one with its movements, but you’ll remain disconnected from the melodrama in order to maintain perspective. Marlone is one tantalizing tease after another, a constant rush of hormones that will only make the inevitable explosions -- like the orgasmic “I Will Hang My Cape in Your Closet” -- that much more pleasing. When the imagery of noir is intertwined with the world of sex, it’s no wonder Marlone is a world of billowing cigarette smoke, conniving vixens, and dog-eared sleuths, complete with the we’ll-always-have-Paris torch song, “Bridgework,” conjuring the locked-in smells of perfume and tobacco.
Each track of Marlone develops as if a chapter, the song titles acting as primers of what is and what isn't to come. Rather than trampling through noised-out big band jazz that often cleans up the messy crime dramas and twisted love affairs of irrational old Hollywood, McGee and Wilhelm tap into the seedy underbelly of noir. It's a closet full of Don Draper’s dirty secrets, not the star-crossed hellos and goodbyes of Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund -- though, you’ll find yourself murmuring ‘Play it again, Sam’ as To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie continuously break your heart.
1. You’ve Gone Too Far
2. The Needle
3. Villain
4. Along the Line
5. I Will Hang My Cape in Your Closet
6. Bridgework
7. I Hear You Coming But Your Steps Are Too Loud
8. In Peoples’ Homes
9. Turritopsis
10. Summertime
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