The cover of the Postal Service's newest single, "We Have Become Silhouettes" (from 2003's collaboration,Give Up) is a lovely snowy urban street scene (that suspiciously looks like the Seattle neighborhood that Sub Pop Records' office is located in, but that could be coincidence).
The song's lyrics cheerfully relate being snowed in, with groceries and provisions, and maybe it's a case of subliminal suggestion on all sides, but the music feels like a snowy day, what it's like to wake up in the middle of the night and hear the kind of quiet that can only be caused by a blanket of snow, that feeling of "No school tomorrow!" that you probably get even as an adult. The whirling synth notes at the end of the song sound like wind-swept snowflakes cascading down the street, around your ankles as you walk down the sidewalk.
Instead of a February release, it should have been a Christmas single, because that's how it feels.
The Postal Service is a long-distance side project between Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab For Cutie) and producer Jimmy Tamborello. By "long distance" they mean that the two of them collaborated by sending music back and forth between Washington and California, each adding new elements until the record was completed.
The single also includes "Be Still My Heart" (featuring Jenny Lewis from Rilo Kiley), a Styrofoam remix of "Nothing Better," and if you dig the remix thing, Matthew Dear remixed the title track (as "Matthew Dear's Not Scared Mix"). Thank god for Sub Pop, keeping singles cool and alive.
Record company trivia time: Give Up is the second best-selling Sub Pop release (guess what the first one is? Can you? Begins with a N... yeah, that's right. Bleach by Nirvana.)
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Article comments
1 - mrbenning
Check out the video
It's directed by Jared Hess, the man behind Napoleon Dynamite.
2 - Crystal E.
I love this collaboration! Ironically enough, i saw a "you hear it first" on MTV last year on the band before quickly picking up the release, and haven't been able to keep away from it ever since. i love More Adventurous, check out my review of it!!
3 - Temple Stark
Caryn,
I promoted this review to Advance.net. That means I put it here (and these places) where it could potentially be read by another few hundred thousand readers.
- Thanks for the post. Temple Stark
4 - Dave
Um, I would suggest you listen to the song again with the lyrics in front of you and re-review the subject matter. Think less along the lines of "snowed in" and more like chemical/nuclear holocaust.
Not being mean... you're just way off.
5 - Alonso
I have to agree with dave on this one,
i think the lyrics are kind of sad: "pretending the echoes belong to someone i used to know"