The Postal Service Give Up label: Sub Pop released: 02.18.03 our score: 3.5 out of 5.0 buy it: here

A lot of artists this year have seemed to turn to the eighties for musical influence. And the new electronic band on the block, The Postal Service, proves no exception. It’s filled with all the silly lyrics, new-wave echoes, and toyish piano riffs people grew to love in the eighties. Made up of Death Cab For Cutie’s Benjamin Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello, this disc seems to be the most original thing that’s come out this year for electronica. While 2003 has been lacking in this genre, this should be able to tide us over, at least until the new Portishead album finally sees the light of day.

The album starts off with a quite ordinary Radiohead-sounding first track. But towards the end of that song, it builds up into a full string arrangement. Like most trippy albums, it gets a bit repetitive towards the end songs, most notably starting with “This Place is a Prison”. But there are so many gems intertwined throughout the collection that it makes up for that problem easily. The tracks “Nothing Better” and “Brand New Colony” ‘s beats sound like they could have come straight from an old Nintendo game. The lyrics and vocals are average at best, and don’t really break any new ground for the genre. (typical lyric: “Last week I had the strangest dream that everything was exactly how it seemed”) But after all, isn’t electronic music all about the instrumentation?

The last song, “Natural Anthem”, seems to be the closest thing we have to a type of instrumental opus, but ultimately builds up to a weak climax and then falls.

Give Up has it’s fair share of hits and misses. But because it is so heavily influenced by early new wave artists (e.g. Pet Shop Boys) it seems to bring a lot to the table. This album would have been known as the official future of music if released in 1982. There is nothing on this album that will totally blow you away, but will at least satisfy your cravings.
20-Oct-2003 5:30 PM

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