I love Ben Gibbard. I really do. Death Cab For Cutie is a great band and he’s a fantastic songwriter. However none of the Death Cab albums will ever be as great as the lone album by The Postal Service.
The two-man electronic group has only made 10 songs and a few remixes but those 10 songs are absolute perfection. The combination of Jimmy Tamborello’s electronic work and Ben Gibbard’s lyrics create an almost mystical world of it’s own.
I’ve never heard the album referred to as a concept album, but it certainly seems like it to me. I think this is what I’m going to discuss.
Perhaps it’s the synths but something about the album makes me think of a futuristic world. The album opens with The District Sleeps Alone Tonight. It paints the picture of an apartment complex on a quiet night. Songs like Recycled Air, This Place is a Prison, Brand New Colony and Natural Anthem all have science fictiony sounding names.
Ironically though my favorite songs are the 3 I haven’t named yet. Clark Gable which tells the story of a guy making an indie film with the girl he loves, Sleeping In which is a mostly non-sensical but catchy pop song and their biggest hit Such Great Heights. That was the first song I ever heard by the band and it quickly became a favorite song of mine (although at the time I was a biggest fan of the Iron & Wine cover). The song is almost too catchy for it’s own good and has one of the best melodies in the last decade.
I’d like to discuss this album more but I think I’ve just convinced myself to write a sci-fi music based on the album so I’m going to go do that instead.
<------- a="a" href="http://saintmort.blogspot.com/2012/09/100-albums-that-make-me-love-music-62.html">62. Eminem: The Marshall Mathers LP
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