The Postal Service’s Give Up at 20: a decade-defining emo album that still soars

The Postal Service might have only existed for a few short years, but their legacy has lasted for decades. 

The early aughts emo-meets-indie band spawned endless covers and perfectly soundtracked teen TV shows and movies. And now, the short-lived supergroup are celebrating the 20-year anniversary of Give Up, their only studio album, released Feb. 19, 2003 on Sub Pop. This year, the band are also embarking on a sold-out headlining tour, with dates at major venues like Madison Square Garden — but before they come to your city, we’re looking back on the album’s legacy and what it meant for the scene. 

Read more: 9 bands commonly mistaken as emo who really aren’t

The millennial masterpiece was one of the cheapest records Sub Pop ever made. It was also the label’s best-selling release since Nirvana’s Bleach in 1989 — largely due to a cover in the 2004 dramedy Garden State. In turn, Give Up inspired generations of alternative musicians, ranging from blackbear’s rap to Charlotte Lawrence’s indie pop.

The noughties dream band were made up of Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and producer Jimmy Tamborello, who makes electronic music as Dntel. Rilo Kiley’s frontwoman, Jenny Lewis, sang backing vocals on the original album and on the two new tracks included in the 2013 reissue.

The electronic indie album defined a decade for emo kids everywhere. Give Up was more experimental than what was popular and a departure from Gibbard’s mopier acoustic songs as Death Cab for Cutie, but with the same heartfelt lyrics listeners had grown to expect. The vulnerable, emotional songs layered over poppier, electronic beats would soon become the norm for future groups like Hellogoodbye and, later, Vampire Weekend. 

At the time, the Postal Service didn’t sound like anything people had heard before — now, most indie singers experiment with similar concepts. Gibbard and Tamborello first worked together in 2001 on Dntel’s debut LP, Life Is Full of Possibilities, on the song “(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan.” One of Tamborello’s roommates was in a band touring with Death Cab, too.

The Postal Service officially started when Gibbard, who lived in Seattle, and Tamborello, who was in Los Angeles, started swapping beats in the mail — thus, the band’s moniker was born (and at one point, the actual United States Postal Service sent them a cease and desist letter). 

“The music has always been the more difficult thing for me to write, so the idea of somebody basically turning in what were mostly finished beds of music and then I could sprinkle other things on top of it and write melodies and lyrics was really appealing to me,” Gibbard explained to EW.

The first beats Tamborello sent ended up becoming “Brand New Colony” and “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight,” which were fully realized in about a week. Lewis recorded backing vocals and keyboards and hit the road with the group. (Lewis, despite never meeting either member before they started recording together, even picked Gibbard up at the airport in Rilo Kiley’s tour van.) 

The Postal Service really blew up, however, when Iron & Wine recorded a cover of “Such Great Heights,” which appeared on the Garden State soundtrack. It catapulted the band into indie stardom — or at least into suburban teens’ bedrooms. It helped that the original version was in the trailer. Consequently, the album spent 111 weeks on the Billboard Independent Albums chart and peaked at No. 3. 

But in a 2008 interview, Gibbard hinted that the band were already over. He said making new music as his side project had “just never been a priority” for himself or Tamborello. 

“The anticipation of the second record has been a far bigger deal for everybody except the two of us,” he explained, before disappointing emo kids everywhere by adding, “There never really was a plan to do a second album.”

While pervasive rumors followed them, promising a reunion, they did not officially reunite until Coachella when they also announced a two-disc 10-year anniversary deluxe re-issue of the platinum-selling Give Up and a reunion tour. The re-issue included two unreleased tracks, “Turn Around” and “A Tattered Line Of String.”

However, the band were not long for this world. Their final show took place Aug. 5, 2013 at Lollapalooza in Chicago. And despite the duo reuniting this year, it doesn’t look like a second album is on the horizon. 

Gibbard previously told Rolling Stone that his “singing voice has changed a bit over the last 10 years” and was previously “kind of nasal-y and twangy,” calling the “remnants” on the record “cringe-worthy.”

In January, Gibbard told podcast host Kyle Meredith any (nonexistent) new music would be “drastically different.”

“Really ask yourself, after 20 years, do you really think that there’s gonna [be] something we could make that could even satisfy half of the desire you have in your mind as to what this record would be like?” Gibbard asked. “A lot of technology has changed. A lot of how we make music has changed dramatically since then. It wouldn’t be the same.”

Gibbard summed it up best: “It’s not just the songs or how you were driving around in high school listening to it, wishing you could be anywhere other than the town that you’re living in — it’s the sound of it.” 

Twenty years later, Give Up feels just as poignant — even if you’re not driving to high school anymore and you’re on the way to your job now.