Postal Service vs Death Cab For Cutie
* I just have to edit this saying that I just listened to the album again through and I can’t give my first paragraph my 100% support. I wouldn’t be able to deal with misleading people.
Every time a song by the Postal Service plays on the radio on I remember how much I enjoyed their only CD Give Up. A pretty creative title considering the band disbanded in 2003. The band consisted of two members, vocalist Ben Gibbard and producer Jimmy Tamborello. The album has catchy electronica beats and Ben Gibbard provides a soothing sound and thoughtful lyrics. Every song on the album was worth listening to and made you want to listen again. I think I listened to strictly this album for a month straight. There are only 10 songs! Of the few oddball groups that I like, this one is near the top. There is one really specific thing though that doesn’t make sense to me. In perhaps the best song, Nothing Better, on this CD, the lyric “And I will block the door like a goalie tending the net In the third quarter of a tied-game rivalry” doesn’t make any sense. Other than that, I give everything about this group an A.
Now we come to Ben Gibbards “band” Death Cab for Cutie which started in 97′, 6 years earlier than the Postal Service started. They have created 7 albums of which I’ve only heard the singles off of. I don’t like their music. I find the songs catchy to start but start getting really annoying after multiple listens. Ben Gibbard is once again vocals but this mix of people just doesn’t create music like the Postal Service did. Here are some of their singles: I Will Follow You into the Dark is a slow, above average song, You Are A Tourist is a whiny, crack my head open if I have to hear it again type, Soul Meets Body is probably my favorite of the band, and I Will Possess Your Heart makes me want to switch the station as fast as I can. I would say I’d change Death Cab 95% of the time if it were playing on the radio. Conversely, I’d switch the Postal Service 5%.
So the question lies, because I’m sure I’m not the only person on the planet who thinks like this, why doesn’t Ben Gibbard ditch the losers and start making electonica madness with Dntel again? I want to add that Death Cab has music nominated for Grammy’s so they must not be half bad… I just wonder if they knew ahead of time that it was a one shot deal and that’s why they made titled the album “Give Up”.