Happy, bouncy dance pop isn’t dead, it’s just been in a coma. DNTEL mastermind Jimmy Tamborello and Death Cab for Cutie songstress Benjamin Gibbard collaborate as The Postal Service on what may be so far the worst hyped release of 2003, Give Up. And if you’re not careful, the album will make you dance until you’re unconscious.
In the upcoming weeks, we’re sure to hear numerous clever wordplays from hack reviewers on the name of this particular act. To them, I say, “give up,” Tamborello and Gibbard do not fit your juvenile analogies to the USPS — this record was released on time and delivered to your door with a smile. The problem is that this particular record should have been lost in the mail. It would have better served as the anachronistic companion to a lonely postman and his personified volleyball.
Actually, I’m sorry. I take back what I said. Maybe if I hadn’t thought to myself, “(This is) the dream of Walter Chen,” then I wouldn’t have been so let down. But the question remains, what am I supposed to do with this thing? Because let’s face the sad and lonely fact: there are no dance parties in Cascadilla 4182. If I wanted to listen to pop music like this, then I would go to a gay bar and shake it all night. Because music this happy should be confined only to designated locations.
Archived article by Walter Chen