Passenger - Night Vision Binoculars

From Wicked Man's Rest (2007)

This is a song I have never heard played anywhere, even though it’s from the somewhat popular band Passenger, and it’s extremely catchy. It has a quite upbeat, enticing, jangly guitar riff, that evolves into a great crescendo from 2:11. For some reason, the songwriter chose to make the song topic even creepier than Every Breath You Take.

I see you nearly every night
I see you when you're down in your house
With my night vision binoculars
And I creep quiet as a mouse

I think this was probably a mistake. In this street performance he even amusingly apologizes for it’s creepiness. It’s plausibly a reason why it didn’t get any success.

There was a period where I would often walk home late from uni, while listening to music, and sometimes singing along. I discovered this song during this time, but realized that is regrettably is the absolute worst song for singing along to while walking alone at dusk, especially the part where it crescendos:

I'm the boy that's crossing borders
I'm the boy with social disorders
I'm the boy with restraining orders
And I'm the boy, yeah

After this song didn’t get any success, the singer made Let Her Go, which is specifically about the opposite take, letting the girl go.

Only hate the road when you're missing home
Only know you love her when you let her go

And you let her go
Oh, oh, mm, oh
And you let her go
Oh, oh, uh, uh
Well, you let her go

And it worked! It was an enormous hit, with over a billion listens.