To Kill A Petty Bourgeoisie's debut album on Kranky, 2007's "The Patron", was an album that I heard when it came out and immediately knew it was something I'd never heard before. While sort of reminsicent of a more sinister version of the classic ethereal 4AD groups, the album also had an intensely focused blend of controlled noise and melody, and I was just fascinated and couldn't wait to hear where the group would go next.

After hearing them perform some of their newer material last year at the Brainwaves festival (which I reviewed for this site), the follow-up album is here, and once again I am completely blown away. The song are still slow and dirgey, but no less focused. A bit less noisy and electronic, perhaps, and even a bit more rocking. The noise elements seem to exist as punctuation, such as on the second track (the tracklist is very difficult to read). Jehna Wilhelm's vocals still soar and pierce when necessary. The group makes fantastic use of sinister violin on a few tracks, and slow-burning drumming on some of the longer cuts. The songs mostly draw out beyonf the 5 minute mark, but the 8th track is under 2 minutes, and almost feels punkish in comparison. Or at least post-punk, in a Siouxsie kind of way.

Once again, I am completely astonished by this band, and I am absolutely certain that "Marlone" is one of my favorite albums of this year.
9/10 -- Paul Simpson (23 September, 2009)