The Postal Service releases their first new song in ten years

The day has finally come. After years of speculation and announcements since "Give Up", their debut, started to fade, they have finally made it clear that a second album is happening. The new single, titled "A Tattered Line of String", was released just yesterday. And boy does it feel sublime.

Ben Gibbard, lead singer of "Death Cab for Cutie", partnered up with producer Jimmy Tamborello, a.k.a. Dntel, way back in 2001. Gibbard had recorded vocals for "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan", a track off of one of Tamborello's albums, and the two hit it off. They loved collaborating and the song was a hit, so they decided to record an album together. Thus was born The Postal Service.

The band was named for the way its songs were made. Tamborello would record instrumentals and make beats, sending them to Gibbard via the US Postal Service, and Gibbard would record vocals for the tracks and edit them and send them back, so on and so forth. It was this way that debut album "Give Up" was created. The album spawned the singles "Such Great Heights", "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight" and "We Will Become Silhouettes". None were huge hits, but nevertheless the album found a large following and the group became a beloved figure of many young adult music fans.

'A Tattered Line of String' official audio'A Tattered Line of String' official audio

Ever since that album was released in 2003, fans have been teased with announcements of getting back together, full of "maybes" and "neverminds", after which it became the musical equivalent of development hell. After having been resigned to it being little more than a pipe dream, Gibbard and Dntel have dropped a new track seemingly out of nowhere.

The track, "A Tattered Line of String", is almost everything you could want as a fan of "Give Up" and more. It sounds a lot like The Postal Service you know and love, but at the same time it sounds much more modern. It's clear that Gibbard and Tamborello have grown in their respective areas, but when they come together for something like this after all this time, it sounds so familiar yet so much more refined, but not so refined that it sounds soulless and too perfect. Even the cover art feels like "Give Up". In fact, an observant fan may even notice that the single's cover is actually the sight from outside the bedroom window on the first album.

Basically, today is a good day to be a fan of The Postal Service. Brace yourselves. Album number two has been ten years in the making...and it's going to be a doozy.

What's your thought of the track? Better, equal to or worse than their older stuff? Are you excited? Let down? Consider liking, retweeting, or just generally sharing to get the word out, and subscribe to Max if you'd like more music updates.