The Postal Service - We Will Become Silhouettes

What this video is

Released February 8, 2005, as The Postal Service's fourth and most commercially successful single, reaching #3 in Canada, #82 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and #92 in the UK. The video arrived at the peak of the mid-2000s indie-sleeper phenomenon, with Sub Pop repositioning itself post-Nirvana as home to introspective electropop. The song's post-apocalyptic lyrical theme — stockpiled food, filtered water,…

Why it matters

Canonical artifact of mid-2000s indietronica and the Sub Pop electropop wave. The Postal Service's Give Up became one of the best-selling albums in Sub Pop's history, and this single was its commercial apex. The video's warm, surrealist-domestic aesthetic became emblematic of the era's music video…

The director

American filmmaker born c. 1979, attended Brigham Young University film school. Co-wrote and directed Napoleon Dynamite (2004), Nacho Libre (2006), and Gentlemen Broncos (2009) with wife Jerusha Hess. Also directs commercials and music videos through…