Give Up is the debut album by electronic pop duo The Postal Service. Released on February 19, 2003, it was the second Sub Pop Records release to receive gold certification, and was Sub Pop's best selling album since Nirvana's Bleach. The album peaked at #114 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart and sold over 900,000 copies.

The band began as a side project between electronic music artist Jimmy Tamborello and Death Cab for Cutie's vocalist Ben Gibbard. They had previously worked together for a track on Dntel's album Life Is Full of Possibilities.

The album was generally well received, and critics commented on its throwbacks to the eighties New Wave genre.

Background and recording

PostalService color300dpi by Brian Tamborello.jpgthumbleftBen Gibbard, left, and Jimmy Tamborello, right.The Postal Service's two members – Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and electronic music artist Jimmy Tamborello – had previously collaborated on "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan" before deciding to record a full length album together. The two worked on the album separately; in December 2001, Tamborello sent a CD-R of electronic music to Gibbard, who added melodies and wrote lyrics. He then added drums, guitar and keyboards at Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla's recording studio and sent the CD back to Tamborello. This process of mailing each other their work on the album continued; after ten months and two trips by Gibbard to Los Angeles to record vocals, the album was completed. They called themselves "The Postal Service" because of this method of trading ideas. Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis provided backup vocals after being cold called by Gibbard, who knew her when Rilo Kiley was on the same label as Death Cab for Cutie.

Release and tour

Give Up was released February 19, 2003 on Sub Pop Records in the U.S. It was awarded a gold certification on March 10, 2005, the second Sub Pop record ever to do so. It was later released in the UK on April 23, 2003. , it has sold over 900,000 copies.

The album led to three singles; "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight", "Such Great Heights" and "We Will Become Silhouettes", of which only "We Will Become Silhouettes" charted, reaching 82 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In January 2006, Apple released an advertisement for the iMac that was said to be very similar to The Postal Service's video for "Such Great Heights". Some created videos that played the advertisement and the music video side by side to make the resemblance clear. It was later revealed that the advertisement had been created by the filmmakers who had made the music video. Ben Gibbard said on the band's website:

The band did not take legal action, but Tamborello later stated in an interview that they "got a little bit of compensation from them for it" in the form of "attention from iTunes and stuff like that".

The United States Postal Service served the band with a cease and desist letter citing tarnishing and dilution of their trademark. The band initially considered renaming themselves, but eventually came to a settlement that involved the band playing at a conference and the sale of the album in the USPS online store. Tamborello later said of their conference performance:

The band toured the U.S. from April to August 2003, including Jenny Lewis in the line-up for all but one of the performances. Lewis provided vocals as well as guitar and keyboards. In the sole performance that Lewis missed, a festival in Spain, friend Joan Hiller sang and Chris Walla played her guitar and keyboard parts. Death Cab for Cutie bassist Nick Harmer was in charge of the tour's visuals. Tamborello later said in an interview that Gibbard had been nervous about touring, as the audience may have been bored by what they saw as "a guy with a computer onstage". This was partly the motivation for using visual effects such as videos and lights, which included small films for each song.

Lyrics and composition

The album primarily deals with themes of love, as well as fame, history, and friendship. "Clark Gable" is about Gibbard making home movies with an ex and "Nothing Better" is a duet between a couple about to break up. Allmusic's Heather Phares compared "Nothing Better" to The Human League's "Don't You Want Me?" and Gibbard later confirmed that "Don't You Want Me?" was the inspiration for the song. Gibbard said that "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight", "Brand New Colony" and "This Place Is a Prison" were the only songs that bordered on autobiographical. He went on to say that "Such Great Heights" was the only song he had ever written that was positive about love.

Critics compared it to the eighties synth and New Wave genres. Pitchfork Media's Matt LeMay and Phares both commented on the contrasts between the "cool, clean synths" and Gibbard's vocal melodies. Phares went on to liken "This Place Is a Prison" to Björk's recent works. Death Cab for Cutie had previously covered Björk's "All Is Full of Love" on their The Stability EP.

Critical reception

Critics were generally positive about the album. LeMay gave it a rating of 8 out of 10, calling it "a pretty damned strong record, and one with enough transcendent moments to forgive it its few substandard tracks and ungodly lyrical blunders". Both LeMay and Pop Matters's Devon Powers commented on the "clichéd", "cringe-worthy" lyrics of "Sleeping In". Michaelangelo Matos of Rolling Stone said it was "a cuddly little new wave reverie", giving it 3 out of 5 stars. Phares said that whilst the album was good, it did not measure up to either Gibbard or Tamborello's main projects. Online music magazine Pitchfork Media placed Give Up at number 104 on their list of top 200 albums of the 2000s.

Chart positions

Album

Singles

Personnel

* Benjamin Gibbard – vocals, lyrics, guitar, keyboard, drums.

* Jimmy Tamborello – programming, accordion, keyboard, electric piano, electric drums, production, glitching.

* Chris Walla – piano, production.

* Jenny Lewis – backing vocals, keyboard.

* Jen Wood – backing vocals.

References

Artist/Band Information

The Postal Service is a west coast American electronic indie pop band composed of vocalist Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, producer Jimmy Tamborello of Dntel, Headset and Figurine and singer Jenny Lewis.

History

Background

The group formed after Gibbard contributed vocals for a song called "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan" from Dntel's album Life Is Full of Possibilities. The song sparked an EP of remixes by other artists, such as Lali Puna, The Flaming Lips, Safety Scissors, Barbara Morgenstern and Superpitcher, and was so well received that the two artists decided that further collaboration was in order.

The band's name was chosen due to the way in which it produced its songs. Tamborello wrote and performed instrumental tracks and then sent the DATs to Gibbard, who edited the song as he saw fit (adding his vocals along the way), sending them back to Tamborello via the United States Postal Service.

Give Up

The band's debut album, Give Up, was released on February 18, 2003. Several songs on the album feature guest vocals from Jenny Lewis, the solo artist and lead singer of Rilo Kiley, as well as vocals from indie rock musician Jen Wood. Dntel and Chris Walla produced the album. Walla played the guitar and piano on several tracks. Though both artists' main bands were still active at the time, The Postal Service supported the album with a successful concert tour and has stated its intention to tour again in the future. The album was the Sub Pop label's most successful release since Nirvana's debut album Bleach. The album's most well-known single was "Such Great Heights", which is featured in advertisements for UPS and Kaiser Permanente. The song was covered by Iron and Wine and was featured on the soundtrack for the film Garden State, as well as a commercial for M&M's. It was later covered by Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds, Brack Cantrell, Confide, The Shins, and Streetlight Manifesto. The song "We Will Become Silhouettes" was featured in the trailer for the movie Funny People.

In August 2003, the United States Postal Service sent the band a cease and desist letter, citing its trademark on the phrase "postal service". After negotiations, the USPS relented, allowing the band use of the trademark in exchange for promotional efforts on behalf of the USPS and a performance at its annual National Executive Conference. Additionally, at one point the USPS website sold the band's CDs. In 2007, "Such Great Heights" appeared in the background of the "whiteboard" advertising campaign for one of the federal establishment's private competitors, the United Parcel Service.

In January 2006, Josh Melnick and Xander Charity, who had produced the "Such Great Heights" music video, created a commercial for Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) and Intel using similar footage. While strikingly similar to the music video, the commercial did not contain imagery of the band or a recording of its music. On January 19, 2006, Gibbard stated on the band's website, "It has recently come to our attention that Apple Computers' new television commercial for the Intel chip features a shot-for-shot recreation of our video for 'Such Great Heights' made by the same filmmakers responsible for the original. We did not approve this commercialization and are extremely disappointed with both parties that this was executed without our consultation or consent." The band did not take legal action against Apple or the filmmakers.

Second album

In August 2006, a purported demo from a new Postal Service album, The Importance of Being, appeared on the Internet. Tamborello dispelled rumors about the song having anything to do with Postal Service.

On June 22, 2007, it was revealed that The Postal Service had begun work on a new album, though the specifics of the release date were ambiguous. Gibbard stated, "We're slowly starting. We're crawling right now, and whether that crawl turns into a walk remains to be seen. But we'll know more towards the end of the year. I've just been touring so much and trying to find time to make it happen and make our schedules line up." Tamborello added, "We're talking about wanting to finish an album by sometime next year, because we have to work with Death Cab's schedule and stuff. I definitely want to do another one."

On February 29, 2008, Spinner released an article stating that The Postal Service may not release a new album. Ben Gibbard stated, "Jimmy and I are still throwing ideas back and forth, but as time goes on, we find ourselves busy with our own music. ... We have some stuff, but it's been difficult to find the time and the drive to do the record. I'd love to finish it at some point and maybe even do some performances. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be."

In May 2008, Gibbard stated that he and Tamborello were unlikely to release another album "before the end of the decade."

In a December 2008 interview with Rolling Stone, Gibbard laughed off suggestions The Postal Service's long overdue follow-up to their 2003 hit Give Up is an indie version of Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy. Gibbard said that both he and Tamborello do not see it as a priority in light of their main projects, Death Cab for Cutie and Dntel. He said, "The anticipation of the second record has been a far bigger deal for everybody except the two of us... I don't know about it being the indie-rock Chinese Democracy, but now that Chinese Democracy has come out, I guess it just becomes the second Postal Service record that will never come out. There never really was a plan to do a second album. We work from time to time together but we have other things that take up all of our time."

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Other appearances

* Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell EP (2003) - The Flaming Lips

** "Do You Realize?? (The Postal Service Remix)" – 4:00

* Split 7" with Coldplay and The Heavenly States (2003) - DIW (Devil In The Woods) Magazine 5.1 DIW #58, Edition of 713

** "Against All Odds" – 3:50 (Phil Collins cover)

* Wicker Park: Soundtrack Album (2004)

** "Against All Odds" – 3:50 (Phil Collins cover)

* "New Resolution" (2004) - Azure Ray

** "New Resolution (TPS Mix)" – 3:02

* Verve Remixed, Vol. 3 (2005)

** "Little Girl Blue (Postal Service Mix)" – 5:20

* Be Still My Heart (Nobody Remix) - Single (2005)

** "Be Still My Heart (Nobody Remix)" – 3:53

* Open Season (2006) - Feist

** "Mushaboom (Postal Service Remix)" – 3:37

* I'm Free (Remixes) EP (2006) - The Rolling Stones

** "I'm Free (Postal Service Remix)" – 2:27

* Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur (2007)

** "Grow Old With Me" – 2:35 (John Lennon cover)

* I'm a Realist EP (2008) - The Cribs

** "I'm a Realist (The Postal Service Remix)" – 3:03

Videography

*The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (2003)

*Such Great Heights (2004)

*Against All Odds (2004)

*We Will Become Silhouettes (2005)

References