My Canadian cousin and her boyfriend Gabriel (both pictured) visited recently, and Gabe played us a few songs on the guitar (and piano), one of which was Death Cab for Cuties ‘I Will Follow You Into the Dark’.

I was really struck by the song, and so I looked it up… and was a small bit disappointed. I preferred Gabe’s version – he brought a sincerity and a sweetness to the song which I then felt was missing from the original.

Then I found the video to the song on YouTube and I realised that I had seen it before – which only reinforced that Gabe had done a better job of it, I hadn’t paid much attention to it when I saw this video of it.

However, I did find another video for it on YouTube, which was simpler and as a result worked better – I’ll embed it at the end of this post.

Gabe also did a great cover of ‘The General’ by Dispatch, who again I had never heard of. I found an unofficial video of the song which I will also embed at the end of this post, and there is a live version by Dispatch on YouTube too.

Again, I prefer Gabe’s version, I suppose he did have the advantage of being live in my kitchen – if either Death Cab for Cutie or Dispatch wish to perform live in my kitchen for more favourable comparison it can be arranged.

So before I get to the videos, I will direct you to Gabe’s own site, which has some mp3′s on it, however – and I hope Gabe won’t mind this constructive criticism – Gabe’s voice sounds somewhat forced on the mp3′s on his site. I would highly recommend Gabe doing some late night impromptu recordings at 1, 2 or 3am to capture the chilled out, easy going sound he so easily performed for us here in my kitchen!

Oh, and I also think he should record ‘I Will Follow You Into the Dark’, just so I can have my favourite version of it