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Who shaped them

The Postal Service

The Postal Service

Since 2001 · United States

The Postal Service was a side project formed in the early 2000s by Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and producer Jimmy Tamborello, who worked separately in Seattle and Los Angeles and traded tracks back and forth by mail… Their story

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Who they shaped

Nobody on the map lists them as an influence yet.

Behind them, left to right: Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Björk, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, The Human League.

The bigger the face, the stronger the proof: they said it themselvesreporteda critic, or widely accepted

Give Up cover

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Give Up (2003)

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Give Up pairs Jimmy Tamborello's glitchy, IDM-derived production — clicking drum programming, warm analog synth pads — with Ben Gibbard's direct, melodically confident indie-pop songwriting, a combination neither had really attempted before. "Such Great Heights" is the clear centerpiece, a bright, yearning love song whose synth melody became as recognizable as the vocal line itself. "Nothing Better," a bickering duet with guest vocalist Jenny Lewis, shows the album's more playful, conversational side. It remains one of the clearest and most listenable bridges between early-2000s indie rock and the electronic music its audience wasn't necessarily already listening to.

Sleeve notes

The Postal Service

Give Up · 2003

The Postal Service was a side project formed in the early 2000s by Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and producer Jimmy Tamborello, who worked separately in Seattle and Los Angeles and traded tracks back and forth by mail — a working method literal enough to give the project its name. Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley contributed guest vocals throughout, adding a second melodic voice to Gibbard's own.

Give Up (2003) paired Tamborello's glitchy, IDM-inflected electronic production with Gibbard's straightforwardly emotional indie-pop songwriting, a combination that found an unusually wide audience for a side project on an independent label. The real-world United States Postal Service objected to the band's name not long after, and the dispute was resolved with a promotional tie-in rather than a lawsuit. The Postal Service never released a proper follow-up album, reconvening only for anniversary tours, which has left Give Up standing as the group's entire studio statement.

Since 2001 · United States