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Maybe I was a little bit hasty in my trashing of the Postal Service. This comes mostly on the heels of this admission:

.: I have listened to “Such Great Hights” and “Nothing Better” at least 20 times apiece in the past 48 hours. I know this since iTunes tells me it is so.

This doesn’t mean that Give Up is a good album. It’s just ok. Nothing that special. But these two songs are, well, catchy–and in ways the rest of the album isn’t. This starts with the fact that I can’t tell if Ben Gibbard’s elocution (he’s the Jeff Gordon of indie supergroups?) is refreshing or annoying. Sure, it’s nice to know what the fellow is singing, but if the lyrics aren’t actually that good, it sure as hell shows (see, for the opposite effect, “Louie Louie” or anything off A Rush of Blood to the Head. COUNT IT!). “Such Great Hights” sure has a great opening verse, but the close of the song is boring and not as sweet/cute. Luckily, on that track, the music keeps it afloat.

The first thing I noticed about “Nothing Better” was that it reminded me of “Don’t You Want Me?” Now that I see that All Music noticed the same thing, I don’t feel as cool. But as that track is one of my canonical “fav. songs of my youth”-type songs, I feel that I can say that I came up with the comparison on my own. Not that it’s that cool a thing to notice. Recognising the sample in Len’s “Steal My Sunshine” as the bridge in Andrea True Connection’s “More, More, More” was much cooler, I think.

Anyway, the introduction of the female vocals is probably the closest thing we have to a flash of brilliance on the album. And it’s really good. And, for full disclosure, yes, I did have a girl dump me once with a prepared statement she brought over and read for me. I bet she likes the Postal Service. If y’all want a deeper reading on the lyrics of the song, just let me know and the bombs can get dropped. For now, I’m just going to stick to “wow, they do that part really well. Maybe even better than Human League.”

And, to give some symmetry, Franz Ferdinand is borderlining some kind of possible leap making. I’ve listened to “Take Me Out” enough times to sort of eagerly want to know other songs totally by heart. Right now, I’m working on, I think, “Auf Achse.” Is that the one with the flanged break?