ZAP TOWN MAG JUKEBOX TUESDAY FEAT. PONY BOY

Whenever I see the words “Murder Ballad” in a song, I immediately gravitate to Nick Cave’s “Stagger Lee.” What imagery that conjures up! With a song named like the one Pony Boy selected, you expect something dark and menacing. But this song is neither dark, menacing, nor is it a ballad. Marchelle Bradanini has taken a pop song construction and spun her seductive web around it. For this song — the B-side to the “Not In This Town” single, due July 31 — she creates a dusty trail of American music warped in with some Dusty Springfield and a tint of neo-soul. The song is bouncy and gritty all at the same time. Like a bullet hole nestled in time in some random saloon in Bisbee (or any western town for this matter), it’s hard to gauge a sense of time to this song Bradanini has created a song frozen in place that can easily fit in any decade.