Anna Roxenholt, Sängerin der schwedischen Band New Found Land, hat sich in ihrer Wahlheimat Berlin von vielen Alben getrennt - aber nicht von "Give Up" von The Postal Service.
It was 2003 and I was just starting jazz academy, a school deeply isolated in the muddy parts of Sweden (south). My then-boyfriend had given me a mix-CD and on it was a song by The Postal Service: „District Sleeps Alone Tonight“. I couldn’t stop listening to this track, so I ordered the album and it became my absolute favorite during these two for me very important years. Late night jam sessions, strange theme-parties and me and my friend Nils hiding on his room listening to indie pop. I remember listening to Postal Service thinking „this is the kind of music I wanna to do sometime“.
Growing up with bands like Depeche Mode – even running a synth club in my hometown at the age of fourteen (!! – no one really knew my age) – make electronic sounds feel very familiar to me. I believe that is what I love about Postal Service. The electronic foundation of the songs, combined with intriguing melodies and Ben Gibbards nerdy voice – it just feels like coming home. Most of the songs are infectiously dancy – like my favorites District sleeps alone tonight, Such great hights and We will become silhouettes, but what I also like about this album is that it often starts calm and careful to later break out into something else. Since I was always a sucker for melody I could take „Such great hights“ (also covered by Iron & Wine) as an example. It starts a bit careful, then kicks in with the seductive beat and presents a quite strange but appealing verse melody which releases perfectly in the refrain. Simply great songwriting.
On our debut album We all die there was sadly enough few traces of my synth fetishism, but on our new single Human (from album The Bell) it finally came out with the help of Edvin, our keyboard genius. When the arpeggio hits in to the second verse I’m still always getting excited, thinking „Yes, this is it! This is what I wanted!“. It is not sounding like Postal Service, no, it’s something else, but it is sort of what I had in mind since hearing them, – or maybe even since I was fourteen…
Living in Berlin with almost all my cd-collection left in Sweden, I keep only my ten most favorite ones here in the bookshelf. „Give Up“ is obviously one of the chosen ones. Ever since 2003 there has been rumors about a follow up, or not. The band got in trouble with the US Postal Service because of their name, which they solved with a cooperation in the end. I guess Ben Gibbards is also pretty busy with his other band Death Cab For Cutie, and maybe that’s for the best. It could be hard to match up with Give Up.
New Found Land veröffentlichten jüngst ihr Album „The Bell“ Fixe Records (Broken Silence).
David Best über Iggy Pop: Der Sänger und Gitarrist von Fujiya & Miyagi hat sich vor allem in den Synthie-Sound der Platte „The Idiot“ verliebt.
Sebastién Adam über Robert Wyatts „Rock Bottom“. Ein Album, das streckenweise so klingt, als sei es rückwärts eingespielt. Was es umso unwiderstehlicher macht.
John-Michael Hedley über Mahavishnu Orchestra. Der Bassist der Spokes hat „Between Nothingness & Eternity“ vor acht Jahren geschenkt bekommen. Von seinem Vater. Er kann nicht mehr davon lassen.
