The Postal Service – Give Up
Indie Electro-pop – Released February 18, 2003 – 10 songs, 45 mins
ROZ’s album drop:
Alright boys – the album to review this week is The Postal Service – Give Up.
Their first (and only) studio album. I hold this one near and dear because I listened to it constantly in high school when I found out about it. Was a huge Death Cab fan at that point so it was really cool to see this side project come along with its own signature sound!
REID
Before this album review, I had not heard a single song by The Postal Service so I was pleasantly surprised to hear Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard early on in The District Sleeps Alone Tonight. Really into this album opener. Starts kind of dark with a slow pace but picks up and delivers. Nice touch from Jenny Lewis with the vocal harmony. It rolls right into Such Great Heights which I wasn’t surprised to learn was a single. Very fun, upbeat song. Really enjoy Sleeping In as well. Things drop off a little for me there with Nothing Better, Recycled Air, and Clark Gable before hitting a high point with We Will Become Silhouettes. To me it’s the perfect compilation of their sounds. And that solo is so cool. Google told me The Shins did an acoustic cover and I liked that version as well, but it doesn’t touch the original. This Place is a Prison drags on a little for me. Brand New Colony gives me Super Mario 8-bit vibes but isn’t memorable otherwise. Like the progressing drums in string-led Natural Anthem, effective way to end the album.
I loved getting into this one and I think it has the potential to grow on me. It’s interesting to hear them experiment with sounds. Pretty cool to find out their name came from sharing ideas back and forth through, you guessed it, the postal service.
Overall Rating – 7.5/10
Favourite Song – We Will Become Silhouettes
ROZ
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight: Great start to the album. Love the back and forth male/female vocals. Ben's voice is just so good. A lot of great drum programming and percussion, synth fills. Just a really solid song, really sets the tone for what's to come.
Such Great Heights: The fan favorite and most well known song for sure. Not much I could say that can't be heard - incredibly catchy, a great groove and a nice high upbeat tempo. This one gets me moving every single time and for good reason. This is where you really get to see what Death Cab would sound like in a parallel universe where they went full electroncia (and I love it).
Sleeping In: Poor guy, hard to follow the first two but still a solid track. The nostalgia is definitely creeping in now!
Nothing Better: This is one of my favorites. I love the electronic bits and most of all the "call and response" aspect of the vocals in this one. You can really feel the emotion and the conflict between the two characters, constantly talking over each other - really really good stuff.
Recycled Air: Every album has their low point, and for me it's this song. Just doesn't really do much for me, a bit convoluted and the hook just never really "hooks" me.
Clarke Gable: Honestly, behind Such Great Heights, this is my favorite production on the album. Just really love how this one is put together.
We Will Become Silhouettes: Alright now here's the hook I've been looking for; basically the exact opposite of Recycled Air in my mind. The lyrics are really uplifting and extremely catchy. Really like this one a lot.
This Place Is A Prison: Melancholy personified - makes me sad but in a good way. Love when those drums kick in after the halfway mark. Not much else to say other than highschool me used to play this one out a lot.
Brand New Colony: Super mario brothers babyyyyy. Catchy - not the best, not the worst, just right there in the middle of it all. Very enjoyable, and once again, how amazing is Ben Gibbard? Answer: Very amazing.
Natural Anthem: Interesting closer, a very gritty and distorted sound - much more so than the rest of the album. Nothing else to really say about it, and it's definitely low in the ranks for me.
In conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised at how well this album held up. I initially figured that it would be a nostalgia trip and nothing more, but it turned out to be just as good as I remembered even after all these years.
Overall Rating – 7.8/10
Favourite Song – Such Great Heights
LUNDI
This album is absolutely amazing... for the first two songs. TDSAT and Such Great Heights are top 50 indie songs ever but this album never really picks back up for me after those two songs. It’s like when a band makes that kickass debut album and can never figure it out after that.
I love Ben Gibbard’s voice on everything he touches which keeps this album alive, but the remaining highlights for me are limited to We Will Become Silhouettes (Hi Jenny Lewis).
All the arrangements are overall solid and I got what I expected from BG, but I just found myself looking for more energy as the album progressed.
With all that being said, I have to give major credit to The Postal Service for this album because you can certainly hear how it paved the way for bands in this genre today. I think the issue here is that I’m listening to the album back to front for the first time in 2020 instead of 2003. It stays in my Spotify library for future use.
Overall Rating – 7.0/10
Favourite Song – The District Sleeps Alone Tonight