May 102013
Give Up (Deluxe 10th Anniversary Edition)
List Price: $ 13.49
Price: $ 13.49
K&N 99-5050 Filter Care Service Kit – Squeeze
- Recharger Kit; Squeeze Oil
- Replaces 99-5002
6-step maintenance system to clean air filtersRestores maximum air flowKit contains one 8 oz. squeeze bottle of air filter oil and one 12 oz. can of air filter cleaner.
List Price: $ 14.95
Price: $ 7.49
Deliciously sweet & addictive poptronica,
I read a review for this album as “…so good that, in a just world, it would stop the war on its own.”
Oh, how right that is.
A distinctly modern melange of nü wave, dance, alterna-pop, and synth, I’d best describe Postal Service as “Electro-indie”. If you’re a child of the 80s like me who grew up with New Order, OMD, Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys, no need to read further–you’ll immediately love “Give Up”.
In the midst of NYC’s current electroclash craze which is so overhyped at times (gosh, just lay down some minimal synths and have some bored models chant vocals), Postal Service is the outstanding contender as the smartest electro band of the year with an album that’s so emotional (melody-wise and lyric-wise), so beautiful, and so well-produced that it puts bands like Fischerspooner to shame. Jenny Lewis’ angelic, trance-like girlish voice enhances Gibbard’s boyish vocals. Catchy, simple-sounding but beautifully complex, every single track—and I mean every single one–is up to par.
notable faves are:
1- “District Sleeps Alone Tonight” – Angelic and soft, gradual fades of breakbeats, staccatos and instrumentals with enchanting melody and lyrics that speed up and slow down. Gorgeous.
4- “Nothing Better” – Electro pop at its finest. This duet is so unbelievably catchy, melancholic yet bubbly, sweetened with a bouncy bass line and perfectly placed tweaks and twiddles.
9- “Brand New Colony” – An emotional track intertwined with the twinkly theme from Super Mario Brothers. Brimming with nostalgia, you can hear the gold coins spinning and ka-chingin’ as you make Mario jump.
10- “Natural Anthem” – A fierce, drum ‘n bass-influenced track in the style of Aphex and other IDM’ers. The junglist in me loves this. A great way to end this five-star album.
But you’ll find your own favorites. Every track was just so satisfyingly good, I nearly cried at the end. You just don’t hear people making music like this nowadays.
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Junkmedia.org Review- Such Great Heights,
Dntel’s Jimmy Tamborello and Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard knew they were on to something good as soon as they finished collaborating on the track “(This is) the Dream of Evan and Chan.” That compelling combination of Tamborello’s melodic knob-twiddling and Gibbard’s literate vocals and forlorn delivery was the triumph of Dntel’s acclaimed 2001 release Life Is Full of Possibilities. Not long after that first collaboration, The Postal Service was born. The relative strangers began recording in December 2001, swapping tracks on CD-Rs through the mail.
Listening to the act’s debut brings back the same sort of giddiness inspired in me by New Order’s Low Life when I first picked it up a decade-and-a-half ago. The Postal Service expertly channels that adolescent spirit with an awkward blend of dance beats and melodic songwriting. However, the duo has updated the sound for the millennial set, pleasantly mixing Depeche Mode beats and bass lines, Pet Shop Boys melodies and Warp Records-styled twinkling tones and clicks. Orchestral samples and pseudo horns add an unusual flavor to “Clark Gable.” Chunky, monophonic Casio-sounding keys tie the vocals to the beat in “Nothing Better.”
Two of the album’s highlights appear right at the front end of the record. The first song, “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight,” leads with brooding organ, before beats saunter in and steadily cruise through the first verse and chorus to a clean, ringing guitar riff. A second chorus pumps even harder and defies you to not sing along. This despite a characteristically bumming realization repeated by Gibbard: “I am finally seeing why I was the one worth leaving” (Christ, Benny, just stick a fork through my heart, why don’t you?). Track two, “Such Great Heights,” has already been released as a single. The catchy number apes Rod Stewart’s “Young Turks,” especially the beat and understated arrangement, albeit in an electro fashion.
The remainder of Give Up is solid, though Gibbard’s lyrics are less potent by the middle of the record, and Tamborello burrows perhaps a little too deeply into some of the thinner sounds of the cold ’80s era that inspires him. “Sleeping In” stumbles a bit with Gibbard’s trite invocation of the JFK assassination, but the murmured chorus, “Don’t wake me, I plan on sleeping in,” that drapes over a quiet acoustic guitar phrase is strong enough to carry the entire song.
Perhaps the only shortcoming of Give Up is that the adherence to pop shuts out some of the more interesting electronic elements explored on Life Is Full of Possibilities. “Natural Anthem” is probably the most adventurous Postal Service tune, utilizing a relatively heavy break-beat, a looping string sample and more aggressive production, but clearly the duo’s strengths are geared more toward hit-making than trailblazing. So, while the record isn’t necessarily an instant classic, the unabashed embrace of simple pop sensibilities, both old and new, make it a record that is hard to stop listening to.
Jay Breitling
Junkmedia.org Review
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I am thinking it’s a sign….,
The Postal Service had an unusual start. No, not THAT postal service, but the unique band behind one of the best albums of 2003, the indie-electronic “Give Up.” Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Dntel’s Jimmy Tamborello exchanged tapes through the mail, sculpting the sweet, melancholy trip-hop masterpiece “Give Up”.
It starts off on strong footing with the melancholy, angelic-voiced “District Sleeps Alone Tonight” with its solemn organ opener. The second song is even stronger — the sparkling, upbeat “Such Great Heights,” an adoring love song from a guy to his on-the-road girlfriend. “They will see us waving/from such great heights/come down now!/they’ll say/but everything looks perfect from far away…”
With such a great opener, the rest of the album is almost garuanteed to be lackluster. But Gibbard and Tamborello manage to keep the quality up with the delicate “Sleeping In,” ethereal “Nothing Better,” and the dreamily majestic “Recycled Air” with its backdrop of string-like synth. “Give Up” ends on a slightly darker note with the dark, grittier “This Place is a Prison” and the fast-paced but strange “Brand New Colony,” before finishing off with the magnificently cacophonous “Natural Anthem.”
“Give Up” was originally recorded in a rather weird way, with Gibbard and Tamborello exchanging packages with recorded CDs inside. Not your typical way of making music, and some might have scoffed at this unorthodox method. But it pays off beautifully — the melodious poppy sound of Postal Service is absolutely intoxicating. It’s a perfect mix of beats, clicks, dreamy synth and sweet vocals. Gibbard’s clear voice is a little sad, and contemplative, and is backed up in some songs by Jen Wood and Jenny Lewis.
The lyrics are beautiful, romantic and heartfelt (“I am finally seeing/why I was the one worth leaving…”), often evoking a slightly otherworldly feeling, not tied in with the world as we know it. It brings up dark cities, flying couples, gaudy apartments and places where things are sad and a little dreamy. The keyboard arrangements are shimmering, guitar riffs are steady and solid, and a cluster of other instruments (organ and horn) surface and vanish seamlessly.
“Give Up” both satisfies a musical hunger and leaves you wanting more. Proving that innovation is NOT dead in the music biz, the Postal Service is a fantastic breath of fresh air. Dreamy, a little depressed, but uplifting and sweet.
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Squeeze bottle rocks,
I love the squeeze bottle … the aerosol bottle just sprays everywhere and is harder to control quantity and where it hits. It also seems harder to judge when you have applied to much, or too little.
With the squeeze bottle, you simply apply an even amount along the ridges on both sides of the filter and allow time for the oil to soak down into the fibers of the filter.
This way, you can start with a smaller amount and if it isn’t enough to “soak to the middle” you know you need more, and can judge how much more based on how much you applied the first time and how much white space is left. After time, you start to get a good feel for the amount of oil needed to re-oil the filter.
K&N filters are also specifically distributed with a spec sheet showing the amount of oil needed, and this information can also be viewed on the K&N website. For instance, my car’s filter requires 1.24oz of oil to re-oil the filter.
With the squeeze bottle it is very easy to determine how much oil has been applied – it’s just liquid in a bottle and there is a gauge so you can see how much oil is in the bottle when you start, how much is left as you work, and therefor how close you have come to the K&N recommended amount of oil for a proper re-oiling job. With the spray can, knowing how much oil you have dispersed is difficult if not impossible.
Hope that helps!
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Well worth it!,
I clean my filter every 15k miles and I am still on my first kit that i have had for well over a year. It does a great job and the filter looks brand new sfter you have completed the clenaing process. Pays off for itself in no time. I would recomend to anyone!
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K&N Recharge kit,
This is a “must have” for any K&N filter or CIA kit. I even use K&N’s kits for other “wet” air filters. If you want to getthe full life out of your K&N, this kit is a must-have. Remember to follow the instructions so as to not harm the filter element when cleaning.
Cheers,
Lance “Motorhead” Lambert
http://blogs.venturacountystar.com/motorhead/
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