Another Postcard
| "Another Postcard" | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||
| Single by Barenaked Ladies | |||||||
| from the album Everything to Everyone | |||||||
| Released | September 2, 2003 | ||||||
| Format | CD | ||||||
| Recorded | 2003 | ||||||
| Genre | Rap rock, alternative rock | ||||||
| Length | 3:25 | ||||||
| Label | Reprise | ||||||
| Writer(s) |
Steven Page Ed Robertson | ||||||
| Producer(s) | Ron Aniello | ||||||
| Barenaked Ladies singles chronology | |||||||
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"Another Postcard" is a song by Canadian rock band Barenaked Ladies. It was the band's first single from the album Everything to Everyone, which was released after the band took a nearly two-year hiatus from performing. The song is notable for its reggae-rap verses, somewhat evocative of Canadian rapper Snow. The verses are rapped by Ed Robertson while the chorus and bridge are led by Steven Page. The two co-wrote the track.
Content
The song is a story told by a protagonist who explains his situation. He has been receiving anonymous postcards with images of chimpanzees on the front. The verses explain the situation, while the pre-choruses list various types of chimpanzees on some of the postcards.
The song was inspired when a neighbour of Page's sent a postcard depicting a chimpanzee to one of Page's children. This inspired the plot of the song (which is reminiscent of a plot from the film Amélie). It was originally written as a joke song, but became the first single off the album.
A sizable portion of the band's fanbase (and perhaps the public) saw the song for little more than its trivial subject matter. The selection of the song as a single was attributed to the band's record company, Reprise, and was seen as an attempt to recapture the success of similarly rap-inspired singles "One Week" and "Pinch Me." The song was not particularly successful and did not attain the success of the two aforementioned songs, each being the first single from one of the band's two preceding albums (Stunt and Maroon respectively). This may have contributed to the album Everything to Everyone's poorer sales.
Music video
The video for the song was directed by Phil Harder, who directed many of the band's later videos. The video is a parody of the B-movie monster/disaster genre and is split between two sets of scenes. The first is a disaster movie style film in which the band (under pseudonyms, and in costume) avoided fake rubble in an attack by a giant chimpanzee, shot intentionally campy, and interspersed with actual footage from the disaster film Earthquake. The second set of scenes are performance, filmed in a round room with windows, intended to be inside Toronto's CN Tower (although the set the band plays in is not based on the actual interior). At the end, the CN Tower becomes a rocket and launches into outer space carrying the chimpanzee with it, a la Gamera. In the music video, the band's keyboardist Kevin Hearn is playing a Nord synthesizer.
In popular culture
The song was used in the end credits of the animated sci-fi comedy Space Chimps.
Track listing
- "Another Postcard"
- "Next Time" (acoustic)
Charts
| Chart (2003) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canadian Singles Chart | 28 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 82 |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Top 40 | 9 |