Format 7", CD single Length 3:09 | Genre Indie rock, acoustic Label Atlantic | |
Released June 26, 2006 (2006-06-26) Recorded Spring 2005 at Long View Farm in North Brookfield, Massachusetts | ||
"I Will Follow You into the Dark" is a song by indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie, the third single from their fifth album Plans, released on August 30, 2005.
Contents
- Background
- Recording
- Music videos
- Release
- Critical reception
- Commercial reception
- Usage in the media
- Cover versions
- References
Written and performed by Ben Gibbard, it is a solo acoustic ballad, and was recorded in monaural with a single microphone and little editing.
The single was released on Atlantic Records, becoming one of Death Cab for Cutie's lowest-charting singles, peaking number 28 on the Modern Rock Tracks, number 66 on the UK Singles Chart and failing to chart on the Billboard Hot 100; however, "I Will Follow You into the Dark" was certified as gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, and is the band's best-selling single to-date. Despite charting lower than other singles, the single is still one of the band's most played songs on commercial radio stations. The song's popularity has led it to be featured in a various television shows and movies, and has been covered by numerous artists.
Background
The song was written entirely by Death Cab for Cutie's lead singer and guitarist Ben Gibbard.
Nearing age 29, Gibbard had never lost anyone really special in his life. Growing older during an ideal and comfortable time of his life led him to begin obsessing over death, the afterlife, and the weight of his relationships. He started to take stock of the importance of the people in his life and felt a need to say something about it, writing the song to deal with his problems of focusing on life by expanding his scope to include death and what comes afterward.
"It's just this idea that what if somebody dies and we're just floating, just stumbling around in infinite darkness, and I'm just trying to find some kind of spiritual kind of peace with myself, and the world."
Recording
Originally planned to be recorded later in the sessions for Plans, technical issues arose with one set of headphones while tracking the vocals for a different song. Producer and guitarist Chris Walla told Gibbard to take a break while the issues were being addressed. Gibbard picked up his Stella guitar and began playing "I Will Follow You into the Dark", which was still going through the vocal microphone. Walla was impressed by the sound, leading him to suggest they do a quick tracking of the performance. It was this mono recording, with the only editing being mild compression and de-essing, that was eventually featured on the album and released as a single. Due to the impromptu nature of the recording, the vocals are noticeably much louder than the guitar, and you can also hear Gibbard breathing in the beginning of the song.
Music videos
Two music videos were created for "I Will Follow You into the Dark":
The main music video, filmed in Romania and directed by Jamie Thraves, features Ben Gibbard in a small sparsely decorated apartment, playing the song while sitting on his bed when he notices a hole in the wooden floor. Gibbard goes about daily activities while avoiding the constantly expanding hole, eventually rolling out of bed into it, hanging on by his fingertips. He finally lets go, only to land unharmed on solid ground within the void about as deep as his height. The song ends with Gibbard walking into the darkness, then pans to show the entire room again with the floor restored to its original, intact state.
An alternative video, directed by Monkmus, appears on the Death Cab for Cutie's DVD Directions: The Plans Video Album. In this video, a picture-book takes up the center of the video frame, and the pages turn as the song progresses. Within the book, two rabbits meet and fall in love. Time passes until one of the rabbits apparently dies. There are other references to death throughout the video, such as a rotten bowl of fruit and an elderly man who appears to die, leaving his grandson behind. The video ends with a picture of the two rabbits together, presumably in eternal happiness together.
Release
"I Will Follow You into the Dark" has two separate United Kingdom-exclusive, colored vinyl 7" releases with B-sides recorded as part of the band's Rolling Stone originals session. The part-one release is printed on teal vinyl with "Photobooth" from The Forbidden Love EP as the B-side, and the part-two release is printed on clear orange vinyl with a B-side of "Brothers on a Hotel Bed". The CD single was also only released in the UK and contains the same "Brothers on a Hotel Bed" B-side.
Critical reception
Critical response to "I Will Follow You into the Dark" was generally positive. In their reviews for the album Plans, Robert Christgau selected the song as his "choice cut", Pitchfork Media called it the album's "quiet centerpiece" and praised its "unexpected turns of phrase", PopMatters called it "one of the best written pop songs of the year – if not of the past five years", and Tiny Mix Tapes stated that it was "one of the band's best songs to date." Rolling Stone however, said that the song "demonstrates how wise Gibbard is to let the band mess with his pristine melodies, which would sound wispy and ignorable on their own."
The song was nominated for the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, but lost to "My Humps" by The Black Eyed Peas. By being nominated in this category, instead of for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, it credited the entire band for Gibbard's solo performance.
Commercial reception
The song achieved gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America in December 2009, for over 500,000 sales. "I Will Follow You into the Dark" became Death Cab for Cutie's best-selling single to date, and their overall second best-selling release after the album Plans itself.
Usage in the media
"I Will Follow You into the Dark" was featured on the soundtrack of the 2007 film The Invisible, a remake of the 2002 Swedish film Den Osynlige. In 2008 it was featured in the television series 90210, in the episode "That Which We Destroy". The song was featured in the sitcom Scrubs, in the season eight episode entitled "My Last Words", first broadcast in January 2009. The same year it was also the title of an episode of Grey's Anatomy in the fifth season, originally airing in March 2009. It was used in the 2011 Nikita episode "Into the Dark" (of which it was also the namesake), and was also used in the film Friends With Benefits the same year. An instrumental version of the song was featured in the 2011 film Crazy, Stupid, Love. The song was also used for the end credits of Mike Birbiglia's Netflix comedy special My Girlfriend's Boyfriend.
The 2012 film Into the Dark, originally titled I Will Follow You Into the Dark, derives its name from the song.