The Postal Service Give Up, 2003
When I found Give Up, I was alone in the record store and it was raining. I don't know what possessed me to listen to the album on Plan 9's listening station. My ex-girlfriend Jenna put "Clark Gable" on a mix CD she made me, but I feel like that was in the Summer of 2003. Give Up was released in February and wouldn't have been on the endcap of the store if it was several months old. But I'm pretty sure I went back home to our apartment, which we didn't get until Fall 2003. Weeird. Maybe it's a mystery that will never be solved. I liked what I heard from the first track enough to buy the album. Oh, the days of disposable, parent-funded income.
When I got home with it, I'm not sure what happened but I wasn't as into it as I thought I would be and it kind of got placed on a backburner.
But then, as often happened with albums from that era, Riley discovered it too. And he fell hard. And it was hard not to get swept up in his enthusiasm. Especially because it was an album I already had, and so could just fish out and listen to without dropping any more cash.
The thing about this album and this band is that I think both Riley and I knew who they were before we'd heard Note 1 from Death Cab For Cutie. For us, Ben Gibbard was the singer from The Postal Service and Death Cab was his band that he was in when he wasn't in The Postal Service. Which, maybe it bears explaining, is backwards from how most of our peers encountered BG.
The album is exactly what it should be. Ben Gibbard's ultra-descriptive narratives set to Jimmy Tamborello's techno-y, dancey, dare I say Radioheady instrumentals. It works. Of course it works.
Here's a weird video for one of the really amazing songs. They're all amazing. Who am I kidding?
And here's a video that they made for the 10th anniversary release this year!
And here's the song that started it all for me:
The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
You can buy Give Up at Amazon, Amazon MP3, and iTunes.
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