It’s easy to forget how amazing this album sounded back in 2003, especially since it spawned an army of mediocre imitators. Electronica-based indie pop is an established branch of indie rock these days, but no one’s managed to do it as good as Jimmy Tamborello and Ben Gibbard did it with Give Up, the duo’s first and only album.

While the novelty of pairing Gibbard’s warm vocals with Tamborello’s cold soundscapes may have been what caused many people to pay attention to the project initially, there’s a world of difference between a novel concept and the solid execution of that concept. Luckily, the Postal Service delivers (honest-to-God-no-pun-intended). Gibbard’s never been better as a songwriter; the album’s sterile, futuristic instrumentals provide a perfect backdrop for songs about loneliness, alienation and escapism. Even the album’s happy moments, like “Such Great Heights” and “Brand New Colony,” are more about yearning for joy than actually experiencing joy. The future-tense used in both of those tracks creates a bittersweet dissonance that’s really powerful. And then there are lines like “Everything looks perfect from far away” that further complicates what could easily be, in the hands of a lesser songwriter, a simple little love song.

I generally dislike using pseudo-intellectual critical terms like “post-9/11 paranoia” or “the terror and absurdity of modern existence,” mostly because they’re easy to slap onto any musical project that’s halfway bleak or faux-deep. Give Up, however, really does capture something about life in the 2000s, addressing what it means to be human in an increasingly technological culture—these songs feel like the last dreams of someone being turned into a robot. It’s the perfect soundtrack to a society that’s either evolving into something new or destroying itself, maybe both.

The Postal Service “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” (mp3)
The Postal Service “Such Great Heights” (mp3)

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