Give Up

Give Up starts on a high with the wistful District Sleeps Alone Tonight, Tamborello's soundscape perfectly echoing the happy-sad ambiance created by Gibbard's mournful vocals and sing-song melody. Better still is Such Great Heights, a perfect fusion of electro-pop and prickly Drum n Bass-lite beats, coupled with a soaring melodic streak. It leaves the starstruck listener smiling from cheek to cheek, a mood broken only by the haunting Sleeping In, an emotional account of the shooting of JFK with a nagging, plaintive vocal hook that won't leave your head for days.

After this breathless opening, the Service drop down a gear with a clutch of pretty, ever so slightly less memorable tunes - each worthy of attention, if perhaps a little less adulation than the first three. However, the bar is raised once more for the last two tracks: Brand New Colony an infectious slice of skittery elctronic pop, and the closing Natural Anthem a brooding, paranoid walk through the darkest recesses of Tamborello's mind. Truthfully, this is one of the best records to emerge from last year, and its lack of ubiquity can only be explained by poor-marketing on the part of their record label, a heinous crime meaning that this daring, brilliant record was heard only by a lucky few. Join us.

It's the sort of band story that magazines love: Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard and Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello exchanged tapes through the mail, sculpting sweet, melancholy trip-hop into this enchanting, low-key pop masterpiece.

It starts off on strong footing with the melancholy, angelic-voiced "District Sleeps Alone Tonight" with its solemn organ opener. The second song is even stronger -- the sparkling, upbeat "Such Great Heights," an adoring love song from a guy to his on-the-road girlfriend. "They will see us waving/from such great heights/come down now!/they'll say/but everything looks perfect from far away..."

With such a great opener, the rest of the album is almost garuanteed to be lackluster. But Gibbard and Tamborello manage to keep the quality up with the delicate "Sleeping In," ethereal "Nothing Better," and the dreamily majestic "Recycled Air" with its backdrop of string-like synth. "Give Up" ends on a slightly darker note with the dark, grittier "This Place is a Prison" and the fast-paced but strange "Brand New Colony," before finishing off with the magnificently cacophonous "Natural Anthem."

"Give Up" was originally recorded in a rather weird way, with Gibbard and Tamborello exchanging packages with recorded CDs inside. Not your typical way of making music, and some might have scoffed at this unorthodox method. But it pays off beautifully -- the melodious poppy sound of Postal Service is absolutely intoxicating. It's a perfect mix of beats, clicks, dreamy synth and sweet vocals. Gibbard's clear voice is a little sad, and contemplative, and is backed up in some songs by Jen Wood and Jenny Lewis.

The lyrics are beautiful, romantic and heartfelt ("I am finally seeing/why I was the one worth leaving..."), often evoking a slightly otherworldly feeling, not tied in with the world as we know it. It brings up dark cities, flying couples, gaudy apartments and places where things are sad and a little dreamy. The keyboard arrangements are shimmering, guitar riffs are steady and solid, and a cluster of other instruments (organ and horn) surface and vanish seamlessly.

"Give Up" both satisfies a musical hunger and leaves you wanting more. Proving that innovation is NOT dead in the music biz, the Postal Service is a fantastic breath of fresh air. Dreamy, a little depressed, but uplifting and sweet.