Postcards, the Beirut-based indie band, is a musical paradox. Much like a painter who mixes light and dark colours or rough and smooth textures to create a masterpiece, Postcards balance their hauntingly introspective lyrics with lush guitars and dense instrumentation.
Formed in 2013, the band’s music is a delicate interplay between the melancholic and the dreamy. And with each song released, the band demonstrates its prowess at blending the dark and light elements of its music and storytelling. Meanwhile, Postcard's sound often combines dreamy indie pop and rock with a hint of shoegaze, post punk and introspective lyrics.
In the band’s latest release, ‘Tenderness’, we see this all come into play within the lyrics video directed by Camille Cabbage, which she shot entirely on her iPhone. With Julia on vocals and synth Marwan on lead guitar and bass, and Pascal on drums, the song marks the trio’s “confident return, with an unflinchingly honest post-punk song that still manages to fit into their signature dream pop sound,” as described by the Berlin-based label T3, which released the track.
The post-punk elements within this song are also a clear example of the band’s dynamism, but it also presents their keen ability to blend popular influences whilst maintaining their self-contained sound. Regardless of which style they are playing through, Julia’s profound lyricism and vocal range is the thread that ties each piece together, as she sings lines like “Isn’t it tenderness we all seek?” set against dense reverb and layered guitar lines that blend to create a sort of call and response effect.
Postcards released its debut EP, titled ‘Lakehouse’ in 2013, which was followed by two more EPs, ‘What Lies So Still’, and ‘Here Before’, culminating with their first full-length album, ‘I’ll Be Here in the Morning,’ in 2018. In 2020, they released ‘The Good Soldier’ album, and later, ‘After the Fire, Before the End’ in 2021.
The band’s music has been described as a reflection of the complexity and contradictions of Beirut, and despite the destruction the city constantly faces, Postcard's music is a fierce act of creative songwriting that resonates with listeners in Beirut and globally.
