When Dntel’s Jimmy Tamborello began e-mailing Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard loops and samples, with Gibbard adding lyrics and morphing everything into tangible songs, they never could have guessed what their little lark would spawn. Adopting the moniker of The Postal Service, Gibbard and Tamborello would inadvertently create one of the true benchmark albums of the new millennium. Cementing it’s status, the duo’s sole record, Give Up, has been given the deluxe treatment on its tenth anniversary, complete with a second disc of various b-sides and covers for the Postal Service aficionado.
Give Up was a trendsetter in many respects, both musically and commercially. Certainly the deluge of electronic acts breaking through on the radio and the charts today, such as Owl City, are indebted to The Postal Service’s brand of earnest electro-pop. Give Up was also one of the first records that could be considered a “laptop” album, with Tamborello’s samples and synth lines created almost entirely with computers, along with the manner in which he and Gibbard collaborated.
However, Give Up’s biggest contribution to popular culture lies in its ubiquity; the album’s biggest single, “Such Great Heights,” has appeared in everything from movies (Garden State) to television ads (those whiteboard UPS commercials), and marks the beginning of music licensing as a legitimate way to garner hits, rather than relying on ever harder to gain radio exposure and fading music television markets. What was once considered a sellout move has become almost a necessity for young bands to gain exposure, and acts such as Spoon and Phoenix would not be nearly as popular without the canny use of their material in all kinds of mass media.
Outside of all that, the question remains, though: how does the music stand up now? Well, after ten years and countless imitators who have refined The Postal Service’s formula, Give Up sounds dated, at least from a production standpoint, the omnipresent bleeps and drum machines having been done better in later iterations. As a result, Give Up becomes a bit tiring as it goes along, with songs like “Brand New Colony” and “Clark Gable” barely registering as the album lumbers through its latter half.
The singles, however, remain testaments to the songcraft that Gibbard employed to make these songs perhaps his most beloved, even above his notable songs with Death Cab For Cutie. “Such Great Heights,” “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight,” and “We Will Become Silhouettes” all stand tall as perhaps Gibbard’s greatest songs, with Tamborello’s melancholy soundscapes providing the perfect atmosphere for Gibbard’s signature brand of sad naiveté and whimsy. While those particular qualities can become tiring at times in the context of Death Cab’s music, they work like gangbusters on Give Up. And album tracks such as “Nothing Better” just fall short of that level of quality, but remain worthwhile listens.
The bonus disc consists of an assortment of b-sides, remixes, and covers by many notable artists, including Matthew Dear and The Shins. Everything here has been available previously, and nothing is essential beyond Iron and Wine’s lovely take on “Such Great Heights,” so for people looking for unreleased material and rarities there is bound to be some disappointment.
Give Up is a hard record to assess; its overall contribution to pop culture tends to obscure the merits of the album proper, leading opinions to rate it higher than it probably deserves. It’s not a perfect record by any means, although its three singles are as close to perfect pop as can be. So, in the end, Give Up is, and always will be, a solid record, but far from a great one. Paradoxically, it is, however, an essential album, and probably the best thing Ben Gibbard has ever done.
Album Grade: B+
Bonus Disc Grade: C
Bonus Disc Grade: C
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