Give Up

iTunes Review

Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard and Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello produced this smart little electro-pop gem in a curiously old-fashioned way: exchanging beats and vocal samples back and forth through the U.S. mail. Like the technique that produced it, Give Up walks the high wire between authentic and artificial, high-tech and low. Its infernally catchy melodies are tricked out with fuzzy, fast dance beats, soft whirrs and clicks, and video-game tones, but it's Gibbard's melancholy tenor that lends the spark of inspiration (and some much-needed humanity) to the dense production. On highlights such as "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight," these opposites come together in a brainy but emotionally satisfying marriage of sense and sentiment. Fans of classic '80s synth-pop like New Order and Depeche Mode may swoon, but the Postal Service are no mere revivalists; in their own post-genre, side-project way, they're rewriting the book.