The Postal Service: Give Up Poll

http://imagecache.allposters.com/images/pic/65/045_8264~Primal-Scream-Give-Out-But-Don-t-Give-Up-Posters.jpg

is it just me or does this album sound super-dated now?

A++ album cover, at any rate.

This is the album that put me off of listening to music with words for a few years. I really liked it. Then one day it struck me - what an incredible fucking douchebag. Something snapped, like when Saul became Paul, and I felt awful embarrassment that I could barely explain. I couldn't trust my judgment in anything after that so I started listening to jazz and electronic music exclusively in an attempt to totally clear the vocals palate.

Something snapped, like when Saul became Paul - niiiiiice

Eventually I came back to my senses and realized I really liked all sorts of music with vocals, but to watch out for this guy

http://i.realone.com/assets/rn/img/9/2/7/8/16218729-16218734-slarge.jpg

not. fair.

http://www.gossipgirls.com/files//celeb-gossip/images/photos/zoey-deschanel-gibbard.jpg

This is the album that put me off of listening to music with words for a few years. I really liked it. Then one day it struck me - what an incredible fucking douchebag. Something snapped, like when Saul became Paul, and I felt awful embarrassment that I could barely explain. I couldn't trust my judgment in anything after that so I started listening to jazz and electronic music exclusively in an attempt to totally clear the vocals palate.

same thing happened to me with Genesis when I was a teenager only I didn't start listening to instrumental music I just stopped listening to Genesis

Ha, well Postal Service was only the last of a long line string of humiliations. No need to go through the list here, but when viewed in retrospect they were damning, indefensible.

This album drops off a cliff after the first two tracks, and my distaste for all things Ben Gibbard was born here. His disgustingly precious voice and crap lyrics are at the heart of what's wrong with most of the music that comes my way these days. I hold this album responsible for a lot of different crimes.

I'd like to live at least one day in a 2009 where this had never been released, just to see what it would be like.

this album is really bad

I've never heard the whole record but I've been tempted to pick it up several times - I mean, first two tracks and "We Become Silhouettes" are great. I get why people really hate this but I think the lyrics are good and the sweet trembling electronics really support them well, especially on "District" - I've totally been that guy. I'm not sure I see anything expressly douchey in that one - just some schlub kind of sadly aware of the inevitable doomed quality of this little winter romance.

Ha, well Postal Service was only the last of a long line string of humiliations. No need to go through the list here, but when viewed in retrospect they were damning, indefensible.

lol why do I have the feeling I'm implicated here

oh wait I already know the answer to that one: narcissism

I always hated this album & this band, but I always liked "Brand New Colony." So "Brand New Colony"

I always liked "Brand New Colony" too, but when I've tried listening to it recently I find that I don't have the patience to sit through the pointless boring coda. Also when I went to college I learned to play it on acoustic guitar in order to impress chix with my sensitivity.

Relistening to the album now. "Such Great Heights" is a pretty catchy tune and will probably endure as The Track from this album, but jesus christ does Ben Gibbard's voice ever sound like shit on here. Also, the guitar solo is perma-lolz.

Also, I'm going to buy a thesaurus.

"I'm feeling green / like teenage lovers between the sheets" has got to be the worst simile ever penned, right?

I always loved this classic Caramanica zinger:

Dear Postal Service: "Singing" over "beats"? That's called "r&b," crackers. Better withdraw that patent application.

that zing sucks almost as much as this album

^^ metazing lol

the cover of this album is pretty

I remember thinking this would be the best thing EVER after being huge on DNTEL's '..Evan & Chan' track. Two good tracks. Bah.

Some of the lyrics are nearly as bad as Interpol.

I was also a big-time "Evan and Chan" stan, to the point of harassing people I knew who listened to this album without having heard that song. But even that song hasn't aged terribly well...

No way evan & chan is still da bomb.

Worst lyric on album: "I was waiting for a cross-town train on the London Underground when it struck me".

Because ALL THE TUBE TRAINS GO ACROSS THE TOWN. Except the East London line.

one of those albums where the name reflects the contents

I haven't played it in years but I liked it at the time and probably still would to some degree.

I warms my heart to see so many like-minded detractors in this thread. Where were all you people in 2003/2004 when no one could hear my cries?!!

"I was waiting for a cross-town train on the London Underground when it struck me".

Does this mean like, a thought struck him, or the cross-town train did?

I haven't listened to this for a very long time, but it has to be Such Great Heights. Yeah, it's corny in the extreme, but it pushed my buttons at the time and probably still will next time I put it on. Whenever that may be.

he means the former, but couldn't have picked a worse way to use the metaphor. xp.

Worst lyric on album: "I was waiting for a cross-town train on the London Underground when it struck me".

that's not even the worst line on that song! what about:

So I changed my plans, I rented a camera and a van,
And I called you
I need you to pretend that we are in love again
And you agreed to

which, in addition to the annoying tense change in the third line, could also be Exhibit A in the case of The People vs. Lazy Thoughtless Use of the Second Person in Popular Music.

not to mention the clumsiness of "The script did call for rain" (this may in fact be "The script, it called for rain", which is of course no better), or "I kissed you in a style Clark Gable would have admired / I thought it classic" where a kinda-cool image is totally deflated by slouchy indie hands-in-pockets shruggery

ew "i thought it classic"

I DLd "Some Great Heights" off the SubPop website before the album came out and listened to it over and over and over again in the unfathomable last days of finishing my dissertation, when I was only sleeping every other day for months at a time. So I was no longer fully rational but I loved that song (and voted for it here). It's still the song I've played the most in my iTunes (in the 50s, eek, man, those were different times). When I finally got the album some time later I was disappointed at how it didn't reach the same heights. I have a soft spot for "Clark Gable" because it sounded great when I heard it on an emotional transcontinental flight, but I admit the lyric is weak and the chorus doesn't satisfactorily resolve the tension it builds up in the verses (the closest it gets are the female backing vocals at the end).

ah shit "SUCH Great Heights"

^^ metazing lol

I thought this said "metastasizing lol" and I was pretty stoked about it

because the air outside will make
our cells divide at an alarming rate

I cannot believe this is almost platinum. I guess it was released in the waning days of most people buying actual whole albums, but that number is still pretty insane. Makes me wonder how much the Shins albums have sold. Also, is that a worldwide figure or US only?

This record certainly caught the crest of that "the Shins will change your life," indie-is-the-new-whatever wave back in 2003/04, and it was a lot more accessible than The Shins and Modest Mouse records that were out at the time, so it probably sold better with the teenybopper/dorm-room set. How many copies were sold of Good News for People Who Like Bad News. I'll bet the numbers are fairly comparable.

Also, were TPS one of those The O.C. "breakthrough" bands? I can't recall. That would explain a lot, though.

wasn't there an iron and wine cover of 'such great heights' playing in some kind of pivotal scene in Garden State?

How many copies were sold of Good News for People Who Like Bad News.

This had a #1 single (modern rock charts, OK), and according to Wiki, "As of March 19, 2007, it has sold 1,509,675 copies in the United States."

some really catchy songs but definitely played out. District is the most solid.

hating on this album is so boring I can barely type the statement out without wanting to kill myself several times over.

wasn't there an iron and wine cover of 'such great heights' playing in some kind of pivotal scene in Garden State?

― horses that are on fire (c sharp major), Wednesday, April 8, 2009 6:47 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

it was also used in a particularly memorable skittles commercial iirc

hating on this album is so boring I can barely type the statement out without wanting to kill myself several times over.

― bnw, Wednesday, April 8, 2009 5:22 PM (5 minutes ago)

oh come on, it's not like you can't see why people would hate it nd ben gibbard in general

*and*

http://postalservicesclarkgable.ytmnd.com/

actually no i can't beyond the usual bullshit "ugh indie" stance that's so frequently taken as a given around here

xp

man i swear to god every thread i open now someone is like "DISLIKING THIS ALBUM IS A BORING OPINION, I'M OVER IT!!"

if you bored to immobility by ppl disliking the postal service don't open the thread cuz lol lots of ppl don't like them

also nobody cares if you think the opinion is boring cuz it's just an opinion

i have 0% thoughts on this album but damn

hahaha dude this is ilm, the home of hating on uninteresting opinons

because we are all SO INTERESTING with our OPINIONS about CULTURAL ARTIFICATS

The haters that bother me are the ones that seem to base it entirely on "OMG Gibbard is FUGLY LOLWTF".

Still listen to the Superpitcher remix of "Evan and Chan" now and again

whatever hoos i'm just saying it's like every thread nowadays

im hating on ppl who hate, is anyone hating on me? does anyone find my opinion on this matter to be "zzz"? where does this vicious circle of hating each other's opinions end? ben gibbard, save me plz

wait, i'm hating on ppl who hate on ppl who hate

Actually, I think I'd be interested in hearing someone actually explain why they hate this. (I don't care about the album all that strongly either way. Strong love or hate for something like this both seem a bit foreign to me.) I'm guessing that it's because it can seem a bit fluffy and cloying?

j0rdan congrats on reaching level 3 of challops--being bored of people who are bored of people bored by this album

btw i am bored of all opinions, ever

*puts sunglasses on, slouches in seat*

B-|

I mean I feel like loving or hating this is like loving or hating that Plant/Krauss album from last year. It's vaguely pleasant & largely uninteresting outside of a couple bright spots, but not worth getting worked up over on either end of the spectrum. It's wallpaper.

That said, the reaction here seems pretty one-sided and predictable and knee-jerk and yes pretty fuckin boring. "Oh Ben Gibbard's involved lol". Hate it for a reason instead of an ideology, jesus christ.

Ben Gibbard's lyrics and voice are much less terrible on the pre-Postal Service Death Cab albums, so I don't think that's it

A friend burned a copy of this for me back before all the hype & I thought it was mildly pleasant. I never really understood all the fuss or the hate, so I guess I feel pretty much the same way about it now, though I haven't listened to it in several years. I like the one with the "swim every day in November" lyric. Which one is that?

Hating on Gibbard for his looks is ultra-mega-lame, and I'm not even a Death Cab fan. Anyway, this thread reminded me how much of a hivemind hate consensus there was on this disc back in the day, but "Brand New Colony" and "Such Great Heights" still delight to this day.

i blame all the haters in this thread for ILX crashing...

listen to this today and it's not bad, would make a great EP. voting for "Nothing Better."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Superpitcher remix of Evan and Chan is really nice in a strung out kinda way.

This album had two or three great tracks. Gibbard's lyrics killed the rest.

I mean I feel like loving or hating this is like loving or hating that Plant/Krauss album from last year. It's vaguely pleasant & largely uninteresting outside of a couple bright spots, but not worth getting worked up over on either end of the spectrum. It's wallpaper.

except every indie band these days isn't aping Plant/Krauss

obv what the Postal Service did was very derivative but I distinctly remember Give Up getting more word-of-mouth hype than your avg indie-electro record did at the time it was released

i was interested in it through being both a fan of dcfc and figurine.. and sadly this album isn't as good as either. gibbard's collab with styrofoam is an example of how much better this could have been

my point kinda being that i don't think the middling level this album never transcends is just gibbard's fault

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

sleeping in is slept on imo

ha i love clark gable. that ytmnd is awesome!

also it is apparent that most of you hate this album because you hate who you were when you liked this album

i never heard this album, and i thank our risen lord jesus every day for it.

because then i would hate myself now.

i mean i would hate myself then, but i would love myself now.

love off matt

i heard a plinky-plonky vapor of a song in a fancy/cruddy pizza joint the other day, while reading batman incorporated and worrying about money. at the time, i was dully dully horrified because i half liked it and assumed that it must be owl city. this has since been causing me no small loss of sleep, so i dug around tonight and found that the inoffending offender was actually "sleeping in" by the postal service. i suspect that this will allow me to sleep better, though i'm not sure why.

fwiw, the song goes okay with grant morrison, muted despair and an overpriced slice of corn & cilantro sausage pizza.