Give Up by The Postal Service

Give Up, the Postal Service's first and only album, came out on Sub Pop on February 19, 2003, and it was made by mail. Ben Gibbard, frontman of Death Cab for Cutie, was in Seattle; Jimmy Tamborello, the glitch and electronica tinkerer who also records as Dntel, was in Los Angeles. They'd first teamed up on "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan" for Dntel's 2001 debut, and for this project they shipped burned CD-Rs back and forth, each adding pieces until the songs were done. The name came from the method.

Tamborello did the programming; Gibbard wrote the words, sang and added instruments of his own. The result sets chopped-up samples and bleeping keyboards against live guitar and drums, a sound that got tagged "indietronica", and it's as cozy as it is clever: Gibbard's sweet, wistful tenor sounds right at home among the blips. Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley and Jen Wood add vocals, and Chris Walla of Death Cab lends a hand. "Such Great Heights" is the sparkling heart of it, "We Will Become Silhouettes" bounces along brightly, and "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" is a hushed, ticking slow-burner.

The pair barely promoted it, played a short tour and went back to their day jobs, but the album just kept growing. By the time it turned ten, US sales stood at 1.2 million, the second-biggest seller Sub Pop ever had, and it even drew a trademark fight with the United States Postal Service and a squabble with Apple. They reunited briefly in 2013 for an anniversary tour and reissue, and toured it again for its 20th in 2023.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.