Recent Grammy award nominations haven’t brightened up the general bleak world view of miserable alt pop legends Death Cab For Cutie one little bit.
“I Will Follow You Into The Dark” is a finely crafted acoustic ballad taken from last years excellent ‘Plans’ album that showcases singer Ben Gibbard’s thoughtful vocal and emotive lyrics and once again underlines the band’s natural songwriting talent. “Love of mine, someday you will die but I’ll be close behind” is as matter-of-factly dark as it is straight-to-the-point but it’s the tender delivery of the words that makes your heart swell and really gets you hooked, “If there’s no-one beside you when your soul embarks, I will follow you into the dark” wants to wraps it arms around and you and keep you warm during those long winter nights.
For a band that always seems to be on the cusp of going stellar, it’s not an obvious choice of single but it’s a gorgeous example of experimental pop balladry nonetheless. And in popularity terms, it‘s a travesty that this band aren’t already competing on the same level playing field as Coldplay, U2 and the rest of the arena glitterati but then there’s something quite comforting about that as well.
