뉴-웨이브 몽상가들 ‘Postal Service’의 느린 연애를 위한 노래 두 사람의 긴장이 만들어낸 끝내주는 앨범 [Give Up]
캘리포니아에서 온 1등 우편물. 新 연애의 지침서라 나와 있는 잡지 기사줄기에도 “편지쓰기”가 묵고 묵은 레트로가 된지 오래일 텐데. 그들의 편지는 어투마저도 저 옛날 17세기 문인들 같지 않았을지. 오해말길, 이 앨범의 주인공인 벤 기버드(Ben Gibbard)와 지미 탬보렐로(Jimmy Tamborello) 이야기다. 사랑이야기는 아니지만(하하) 이들이 1년 가까이 주고받은 작업의 결과물이 사랑에 관한 10곡으로 태어났으니 과히 틀린 말은 아닐 거다. 메인 밥벌이(밴 기버드는 데스 캡 포 큐티, Death Cap for Cutie의, 지미 탬보렐로는 디앤텔, Dntel의 책임자)를 가진 이들의 본격적인 연애(?)는 디앤텔의 앨범 [Life Is Full Of Possibilitties](2001)에 수록된 ‘(This Is) The Dream Of Evan And Chan’이란 곡을 함께 작업한 후에 이루어 졌다. 결국은 이 프로젝트의 이름이 된 우편(US Postal Service)을 이용한 소통은 탬보렐로가 자신의 작업물을 CD-R에 ‘구워’ 시애틀의 기버드에게 보내면, 기버드는 그 소스 위에 멜로디와 가사를 얹고, 가끔은 기타와 드럼, 키보드를 입혀 그 데모를 다시 LA의 탬보렐로에게 보내는 식이었단다. 서로의 작업에 대한 수정이나 요구사항들 역시 구구절절이 편지로 적었음은 물론이다. 하지만 페덱스도 아니고 우편이라는 ‘저렴하고 귀찮고 느긋한’ 소통을 통해 탄생한 이 앨범이 서브 팝의 명예를 되찾아주고 돈방석에 올려놓았다니. 다음번에는 뮤지션들 사이에서 우편이 일종의 암호가 될지도 모를 일이다. 건조하던 디엔텔의 비트는 온데간데없고 사랑 노래다운 촉촉함이 대신 자리한다. 그 위 기버드의 촌철살인 멜로디가 선명한 라인을 그리고, 최소한도로 사용된 악기들이 뒤를 따른다. 하지만 화룡점정은 백워드 매스킹으로 돌리면 "이 노래를 나 말고 누가 이렇게 부를 수 있겠니"라는 말이라도 나올 듯한 기버드의 목소리이다. 언제나 소년과 청년 사이에서 방황하는 그의 목소리는 떠나려는 그녀를 어떻게든 잡으려 할 때도(‘Nothing Better’), 간지럽게 사랑을 노래할 때도(‘Such Great Heights’), 탬보렐로가 만들어 낸 극적으로 몽환적인 세계 안에서도(‘Recycled Air’) 지친 청춘을 효과적으로 연기한다. 더불어 앨범은 80년대의 향수 공식에도 충실하다. 80년대 신스 팝(Synth Pop)이나 뉴 웨이브(New Wave)의 기운이 느껴지는 가운데 심지어 수록 곡 중 ‘Nothing Better’는 휴먼 리그(Human League)의 ‘Don't You Want Me?’에게서 영감을 받았다고 당당히 밝힐 정도라니! 작업방식부터 음악까지 철저히 아날로그를 지향하는 유기농 사운드라 해도 될까. 하지만 가장 큰 이슈는 뭐라 해도 ‘일렉트로니카 최고의 러브 송’이란 극찬을 받은 ‘Such Great Heights’가 차지한다. EP에도 등장하셔서 이 곡을 불러 젖힌 우리 샘 빔 교수님(Iron & Wine)과 신스(The Shins)를 비롯해 벤 폴즈(Ben Folds), 매트 네이션슨(Matt Nathanson)이 커버를 서슴지 않았으며, 심지어는 해리 포터의 엠마 왓슨(Emma Watson)양도 그들을 자신의 Favorite으로 꼽는데 주저하지 않았다. 그리하여 영화 ‘가든 스테이트, Garden State’와 미국 드라마 ‘그레이 아나토미, Grey's Anatomy’, 끝내는 한국 HP광고에도 등장하고야 만 것이다. .... ....
smeared black ink your palms are sweaty and I'm barely listening to last demands I'm staring at the asphalt wondering what's buried underneath where I am
I'll wear my badge a vinyl sticker with big block letters adherent to my chest that tells your new friends I am a visitor here I am not permanent and the only thing keeping me dry is where I am
you seem so out of context in this gaudy apartment complex a stranger with your door key explaining that I am just visiting and I am finally seeing why I was the one worth leaving
d.c. sleeps alone tonight
you seem so out of contect in this gaudy apartment complex a stranger with your door key explaining that I am just visiting and I am finally seeing why I was the one worth leaving the district sleeps alone tonight after the bars turn out their lights and send the autos swerving into the loneliest evening and I am finally seeing why I was the one worth leaving
I am thinking it's a sign that the freckles in our eyes are mirror images and when we kiss they're perfectly aligned and I have to speculate that God himself did make us into corresponding shapes like puzzle pieces from the clay true, it may seem like a stretch, but its thoughts like this that catch my troubled head when you're away when I am missing you to death when you are out there on the road for several weeks of shows and when you scan the radio, I hope this song will guide you home
they will see us waving from such great heights, "come down now," they'll say but everything looks perfect from far away, "come down now," but we'll stay...
I tried my best to leave this all on your machine but the persistent beat it sounded thin upon listening that frankly will not fly. you will hear the shrillest highs and lowest lows with the windows down when this is guiding you home"
last week I had the strangest dream where everything was exactly how it seemed where there was never any mystery of who shot John F. Kennedy it was just a man with something to prove slightly bored and severly confused he steadied his rifle with his target in the center and became famous on that day in november
don't wake me I plan on sleeping in
again last night I had that strange dream where everything was exactly how it seemed no concerns about the world getting warmer people thought that they were just being rewarded for treating others as they'd like to be treated for obeying stop signs and curing diseases for mailing letters with the address of the sender now we can swim any day in november
Will someone please call a surgeon who can crack my ribs and repair this broken heart that you're deserting for better company? I can't accept that it's over and I will block the door like a goalie tending the net in the third quarter of a tied-game rivalry.. So just say how to make it right and I swear I'll do my best to comply. Tell me am I right to think that there could be nothing better than making you my bride and slowly growing old together
I feel I must interject here, you're getting carried away, feeling sorry for youself with these revisions and gaps in history. So let me help you remember. I've made charts and graphs that should finally make it clear. I've prepared a lecture on why I have to leave So please back away and let me go.
I can't my darling I love you so. oh oh oh. Tell me am I right to think that there could be nothing better than making you my bride and slowly growing old together.
don't you feed me lines about some idealistic future your heart won't heal right if you keep tearing out the sutures
I admit that I have made mistakes and I swear I'll never wrong you again
you've got a lure I can't deny, but you've had your chance so say goodbye, say goodbye"
i take a breath and pull the air in 'til there's nothing left I'm feeling green like teenage lovers between the sheets
ba ba ba ba...
knuckles clenched to white as the landing gear retract for flight my head's a balloon inflating with the altitude
ba ba ba ba...
i watch the patchwork farms' slow fade into the ocean's arms and from here they can't see me stare the stale taste of recycled air i watch the patchwork farms' slow fade into the ocean's arms calm down, release your cares the stale taste of recycled air"
I was waiting for a cross-town train in the london underground when it struck me that I've been waiting since birth to find a love that would look and sound like a movie so I changed my plans I rented a camera and a van and then I called you "I need you to pretend that we are in love again." and you agreed to
I want so badly to believe that "there is truth, that love is real" and I want life in every word to the extent that it's absurd
I greased the lens and framed the shot using a friend as my stand-in the script it called for rain but it was clear that day so we faked it the marker snapped and I yelled "quiet on the set" and then called "action!" and I kissed you in a style clark gable would have admired (i thought it classic)
I want so badly to believe that "there is truth, that love is real" and I want life in every word to the extent that it's absurd i know you're wise beyond your years, but do you ever get the feeling that your perfect verse is just a lie you tell yourself to help you get by"
I've got a cupboard with cans of food, filtered water, and pictures of you and I'm not coming out until this is all over. And I'm looking through the glass where the light bends at the cracks and I'm screaming at the top of my lungs pretending the echoes belong to someone someone I used to know
and we become silhouettes when our bodies finally go
I wanted to walk thRough the empty streets and feel something constant under my feet, but all the news reports recommended that I stay indoors because the air outside will make our cells divide at an alarming rate until our shells simply cannot hold all our insides in, and that's when we'll explode (and it won't be a pretty sight)
and we'll become silhouettes when our bodies finally go"
this place is a prison and these people aren't your friends inhaling thrills through $20 bills and the tumblers are drained and then flooded again and again
ther're guards at the on ramps armed to the teeth and you may case the grounds from the cascades to puget sound, but you are not permitted to leave
i know there's a big world out there like the one i saw on the screen in my living room late last night, it was almost too bright to see and i know that it's not a party if it happens every night pretending there's glamour and candelabra when you're drinking by candlelight
I'll be the grapes fermented, bottled and served with the table set in my finest suit like a perfect gentleman. I'll be the fire escape that's bolted to the ancient brick where you will sit and contemplate your day.
I'll be the waterwings that save you if you start drowning in an open tab when your judgement's on the brink. I'll be the phonograph that plays your favorite albums back as your lying there, drifting off to sleep... Drifting off to sleep... I'll be the platform shoes and undo what heredity's done to you: you won't have to strain to look into my eyes. I'll be your winter coat buttoned and zipped straight to the throat with the collar up so you won't catch a cold.
I want to take you far away from the cynics in this town and kiss you on the mouth. We'll cut our bodies free from the tethers of this scene, start a brand new colony. Where everything will change, we'll give ourselves new names. (Identities erased.) The sun will heat the grounds, under our bare feet in this brand new colony. Brand new colony...
Everything will change, Ooo ooo... Everything will change, Ooo ooo... Everything will change, Ooo ooo..."
i'll write you a song and it won't be hard to sing it will be a natural anthem, familiar it may seem it will rally all the workers on strike for better pay and its chorus will resound and boost morale thoughout the day
i'll write you a song and i hope that you won't mind because all the names and places i have taken from real life so please don't be upset at this portrait that i paint it may be a little biased, but at least i spelt your name right..."
I was running late for work So I didn't change my shirt The evening's drinks left a lingering taste in my mouth And when I left You were fast asleep Tangled in the sheets And on the bus I could have sworn it was all a dream And it didn't happen to me
And then I felt the scrapes From the slippery subway grate. Oh how you laughed At my complete lack of grace. But I could not recall A more perfect fall Cause when I looked up into your eyes It didn't hurt at all.
And I thought, be still my heart This could be a brand new start, with you. And it will be clear If I wake up and you're still here with me in the morning.
And I thought, be still my heart This could be a brand new start, with you. And it will be clear If I wake up and you're still here with me in the morning.