Track Listing

1. We Will Become Silhouettes
2. Be Still My Heart
3. Nothing Better
4. We Will Become Silhouettes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25270 in Music
• Published on: 2005
• Released on: 2005-02-28
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Single

Customer Reviews

Hiding in a Nuclear Bunker...
I'm pretty sure that all the best art, be they songs, pictures, paintings etc, are those which different people find different meaning in. I sat with some friends listening to this song, and we all came away with our own meaning. Personally I have to agree with the other review here, that the song is an 'apocalyptic whimsy', telling a little tale of somebody stuck in a nuclear bunker while everyone outside gets vapourised. As for the song title, search in google for photographs of silhouettes of people burnt into the side of buildings when the atomic bombs went off in Hiroshima and Nagasaki - could this be what they're on about? You decide!

When our bodies finally go
A band like the Postal Service produces singles easily -- their trip-hop is fresh, sweet and wistful, as well as being wickedly catchy. And Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie) and Jimmy Tamborell (Dntel) were in top form in the wistful, lyrically weird "We Will Become Silhouettes."

A flowing, strange story-song, "We Will Become Silhouettes" tells what happens when for some reason, the air causes cells to "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)." Interpret that as you will, but the apocalyptic whimsy of it is irresistable.

A new song follows it: "Be Still My Heart," an enchanting little ballad with rapid percussion overlaid with organ and synth. "Nothing Better (Styrofoam Remix)" is a fair remix that is off in some parts (what is with that fizzing noise?) but retains the plaintiveness as the original. And finally there is the laid-back "We Will Become Silhouettes (Matthew Dear's Not Scared Mix)," which is stripped-down and fragile-sounding.

"We Will Become Silhouettes" is a bit of an oddball song, on an album full of songs about loneliness and lost love. Lyrically, it sounds like one of the Flaming Lips' more mainstream songs. Not that that's a bad thing -- it adds a sense of strangeness and fun to Postal Service's debut. It certainly reflects in the cover, with a rather startled-looking young man surrounded by people who are fading away.

This single does a good job of also showing off the kinds of music that Postal Service can do -- the title song is poppy and smooth, while the second is sort of synthy-drummy. What is even better, the remixes are good. Most remixes cloud over what made the song good in the first place, but Postal Service's are well-done.

"We Will Become Silhouettes" is a solid single, especially with the well-done remixes and extra song. It'll probably leave you humming, "And we'll become silhouettes when our bodies finally go..."