The Postmarks
Label: Unfiltered
Length: LP
Website: http://www.thepostmarks.com
Release Date: 2007-03-06
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: Postmarks, The
‘Sometimes good things happen to us disguising themselves as bad,â?� Tim Yehezkely sings during the Postmarks’ girl-group tango ‘Let Go.â?� This Miami-based trio takes the opposite approach, smuggling melancholic lyrics into gorgeous chamber-pop tunes reminiscent of Camera Obscura and Black Box Recorder. Decorated with lush strings, horn fanfare and overlapping harmonies, the Postmarks’ songs teeter on the edge of a twee cliff. But Yehezkely, an ethereal vocalist who excels at communicating fragility, keeps them tethered to a strip-mined emotional core. She uses clever wordplay to devastating effect, such as during the achingly wistful ‘Summers Never Seem to Last,â?� where ‘hourglass has been turned upside downâ?� becomes ‘our glass is half-empty.â?� Vivid nature descriptions serve as a prelude to bitter epiphanies about the transience of wildflowers and the relationships they transparently parallel. When this debut disc concludes with a haunting final track that’s half’slow dance, half-dirge, its ephemerality seems equally lamentable.
This article appears in Mar 7-13, 2007.