“The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” – The Postal Service
(Words: Ben Gibbard, Music: The Postal Service, available on Give Up, Sub Pop 2003)

When talking about the Postal Service, it’s easy to get lost in the details, whether it’s the band’s back story or just the instruments used to create the recording. That discuss is fine and has a place, but it shouldn’t be the end of the discussion, and too often with a band like this – one that can be boiled down to its relationships and gimmicks – the substance gets shortchanged. For example, the beeps alone don’t make these songs speak to so many of us; if that was the case, anyone with a drum machine or a Casio synthesizer could get a record deal. Instead, I’m more interested in how these details fit together – specifically, how the process impacted the songs.

“The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” works so well because the adornments fit into the song’s structure perfectly. Around the same time as Give Up’s release, Ben Gibbard started writing grander songs for Death Cab for Cutie. “District,” despite Tamborello’s programming, remains relatively simple, with the chords held just long enough to create a sullen background for Gibbard’s late night meditation on loneliness. Jenny Lewis’ backing vocals add another texture to the verses, but that’s generally it. It’s the programming – the electronic beat and beeps – that sell the mood. Whether the electronic treatment gives it the feel of a late night illuminated only by an LCD screen, or it’s simply the short, clipped sounds created by the technology, but the song creates the sound of a quiet night lit up only by a racing mind. It’s hard to imagine some of Gibbard’s anthems getting this treatment. Instead, the Postal Service project needed songs that made the most of the available tools and, more importantly, used the tools to make itself better.

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