"Brand New Colony" (The Postal Service)

I don't care for Death Cab for Cutie or Dntel.  Death Cab is a little too navel-gazey and precious, and Dntel is a little too "background music for a shoe store in the Meatpacking District" for my taste.

But, take vocalist Ben Gibbard from Death Cab and producer/writer Jimmy Tamborello of Dntel, and put them together, and somehow I'm an instant fan.

It's funny, because the formula for The Postal Service contains elements that define Gibbard's band and Tamborello's project: introspective (almost too clever for their own good) lyrics, wispy vocals, electronic beats, and layered textures.  But there's a bouncier feeling to The Postal Service's music overall.  I think the buoyant feel on Give Up was born of the novel way that Gibbard and Tamborello worked on the album: Tamborello writing and recording music tracks, sending the tapes to Gibbard through the US Mail, and then Gibbard adding his contributions and vocals before mailing the tapes back to Tamborello. 

There's a kid-on-Christmas-morning kind of feel to every track that makes Give Up so compelling and makes you want to revisit it, time and time again.

One of my favorite tracks is "Brand New Colony."  From the Nintendo-nostalgia 8-bit synth that opens the track to the skittering drums that drive the first half and the heart-on-sleeve vocals from Gibbard (and Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis) over perfectly-placed ambient loops and samples, the song leaps from your speakers with innocent abandon.  (These days, every time I hear them singing about running away to start a "brand new colony," I can't help but picture the wide-eyed misfit kids from Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom for some reason.)

I also love the shift to the slinkier trip hop beat on the latter half of the track.  It ends the song on an unexpected, yet perfect, funky note.