Such Greater Heights: Sub Pop Reissues The Postal Service

Postal ServiceIt was one chance group of collaborations between one of the most acclaimed indie-rock frontmen and a celebrated electronic producer – arguably both similar to and unlike anything either man had done before. And, bolstered by some unforgettable songs, it’s a collaboration from which the world anxiously awaits more.

Now, there is more – sort of: The Postal Service, the duo of Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello, will expand and reissue their sole LP, Give Up, with a bonus disc of rare and unreleased material (including two new tracks) and commemorate their success with a tour.

After Gibbard contributed vocals to a song for Tamborello’s Dntel project, the pair decided to further their collaboration. Tamborello would create tunes in the studio and mail them to Gibbard, who would sing and edit the tracks and mail them back to Tamborello (hence, naturally, the name). The album charted in the lower half of Billboard‘s Top 200, but sold over a million copies – after Nirvana’s Bleach, it’s the most successful album put out by the Sub Pop label.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wrsZog8qXg]

And what made the album such a smash? “Such Great Heights,” the lead single, never charted, but a myriad of soundtrack and commercial appearances (not to mention affectionate covers from Iron & Wine, Ben Folds, Amanda Palmer, Rilo Kiley and others) made the quirky, lovely tune impossible to ignore. By the time electronic act Owl City released the similar “Fireflies,” it was clear The Postal Service made an indelible mark on pop music.

For this 10th anniversary edition, the album will be appended by a bonus disc featuring seven non-LP tracks, including the new recordings “Turn Around” and “A Tattered Line of String,” six live cuts and remixes from original singles and two covers of key Postal Service songs by fellow indie darlings The Shins and Iron & Wine. It will also be available on triple vinyl.

Look for all versions in your local record shop on April 9 (a day earlier in the U.K., naturally). While we wait for pre-order links, hit the jump to get the full track list!

Give Up: 10th Anniversary Edition (Sub Pop, 2013)

Disc 1: Original LP (released as Sub Pop SPCD 595, 2003)

  1. The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
  2. Such Great Heights
  3. Sleeping In
  4. Nothing Better
  5. Recycled Air
  6. Clark Gable
  7. We Will Become Silhouettes
  8. This Place is a Prison
  9. Brand New Colony
  10. Natural Anthem

Disc 2: Bonus material

  1. Turn Around
  2. A Tattered Line of String
  3. Be Still My Heart
  4. There’s Never Enough Time
  5. Suddenly Everything Has Changed
  6. Against All Odds (Take a Look At Me Now)
  7. Grow Old with Me
  8. Such Great Heights (John Tejada Remix)
  9. The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (DJ Downfall Persistent Beat Mix)
  10. Be Still My Heart (Nobody Remix)
  11. We Will Become Silhouettes (Matthew Dear’s Not Scared Remix)
  12. Nothing Better (Styrofoam Remix)
  13. Recycled Air (Live on KEXP)
  14. We Will Become Silhouettes – The Shins
  15. Such Great Heights – by Iron & Wine

Disc 2, Tracks 1-2 are new recordings
Disc 2, Tracks 3 and 11-12 from “We Will Become Silhouettes” CD single (Sub Pop SPCD 656, 2005)
Disc 2, Tracks 4 and 14-15 from “Such Great Heights” CD single (Sub Pop SPCD 608, 2003)
Disc 2, Tracks 5 and 8-9 from “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” CD single (Sub Pop SPCD 614, 2003)
Disc 2, Track 6 from Wicker Park Soundtrack Album (Lakeshore Records LKS 33804, 2004)
Disc 2, Track 7 from Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur (Warner Bros. 156028-2, 2007)
Disc 2, Track 10 from Terminal Sales Vol. 1: The 2005 Sub Pop Records Songbook of Songs (Sub Pop SPCD 676, 2005)
Disc 2, Track 13 from Yeti Magazine compilation Vol. 3 (YETI-3, 2005)

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Mike Duquette
Mike Duquette

Mike Duquette (Founder) was fascinated with catalog music ever since he was a teenager. A 2009 graduate of Seton Hall University with a B.A. in journalism, Mike paired his profession with his passion through The Second Disc, one of the first sites to focus on all reissue labels great and small. His passion for reissues turned into a career, having written at and worked for all three major catalogue music labels and contributing to Allmusic, Billboard, Discogs, City Pages and Ultimate Classic Rock. He's penned liner notes for Verve, Chess, Mondo and Soul Music Records.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Mike lives in Astoria, Queens with his wife, a cat named Ravioli, twin daughters and a large yet tasteful collection of music.

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