Give Up

Give Up is the only studio album by electronic music band The Postal Service, released February 19, 2003 on Sub Pop Records.

The band began as a side project between electronic music artist Jimmy Tamborello and Death Cab for Cutie's vocalist Ben Gibbard. The two had previously worked together for a track on Dntel's album Life Is Full of Possibilities.

The Postal Service's only full-length release, Give Up was the second Sub Pop Records release to receive platinum certification, their best selling album since Nirvana's Bleach. The album peaked at #114 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart in its initial release; the 2013 tenth-anniversary reissue of the album peaked at #45 in April 2013. As of January 2013, Give Up had sold 1.07 million copies. The album was generally well received, and critics commented on its throwbacks to the eighties new wave genre.

Production and composition

The Postal Service's two members – Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and electronic music artist Jimmy Tamborello – had previously collaborated on "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan" before deciding to record a full-length album together. The two worked on the album separately; in December 2001, Tamborello sent a CD-R of electronic music to Gibbard, who added melodies and wrote lyrics. He then added drums, guitar and keyboards at Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla's recording studio and sent the CD back to Tamborello. This process of mailing each other their work on the album continued; after ten months and two trips by Gibbard to Los Angeles to record vocals, the album was completed. The group called themselves "The Postal Service" because of this method of trading ideas.Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis provided backup vocals after being cold called by Gibbard, who knew her when Rilo Kiley was on the same label as Death Cab for Cutie.