The Postal Service - Give Up

The story of The Postal Service in a nutshell is this: Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel) asks Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie) to put some vocals on an upcoming track for a Dntel album. The song "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan" gets released on Dntels Life Is Full Of Possibilities and the two decide to collaborate some more. They send parts of songs to each other on CD-R via the... Postal Service... and thus, we have Give Up. If you've heard and liked the Dntel song that started this all of, you're wasting time reading this and need to go get the album right now. If you heard Death Cab for Cutie's cover of Bjork's "All Is Full Of Love" on their Stability EP and thought it would be great if Death Cab For Cutie put out a record that was a bit more electronic, you too need to stop reading this and go out and get the record. You will instantly put it into rotation and don't even have to thank me. Everyone else needs to ask themselves a few questions. Are you a fan of indie rock? Do the names Jen Wood, Chris Walla, and Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley ring any bells? Do you wish the Flaming Lips weren't "so weird" and would do a more accessible album without Wayne singing? Okay, so that last one is a bit of a stretch. The album starts off with "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight", a quiet song that introduces the listener to this combo of the ever-so recognizable soft sweet vocals of Ben Gibbard with the seemingly simple beats of Jimmy Tamborello. Many of these songs (i.e. "Sleeping In", "Nothing Better", "We Will Become Silhouettes") take on the 'quiet start to catchy upbeat finish' style but it never gets old. "Brand New Colony" throws in the quirky 80's video game style keyboard sounds and "Natural Anthem" caps off the record with a fantastic buildup of beats and strings. Yeah, that's right.. Fantastic. Maybe it's too easy to say that this album is a great listen. Maybe you could be the cooler-than-tho indie rock kid by spitting in the face of The Postal Service. But you'd be missing out. This record works, so well. The beats compliment the vocals every time. The harmonies and vocals of Jenny Lewis and Jen Wood fit exactly right in the setting. So chalk another review up to gushing over The Postal Service, it's worth it. [www.subpop.com]