It’s that first date you have that feels like your twentieth. It’s the first time you make a move and she doesn’t pull away. It’s the look she gives you that speaks volumes amidst the silence. It’s not love, but it’s something. It’s a fearful feeling that could go one of two ways. It’s the reason so many shy away from its allure.

“I See You,” a powerful ballad from British Pop titan Mika, is a song dedicated to the wallflower who never peels himself away from his idle post to speak to the one of his dreams. It’s ironic looking back now, realizing the song’s actual meaning, that this specific composition played the soundtrack to one of my own failed attempts at creating something out of nothing. Thankfully, my own jaded association with the song doesn’t trump the quality of the music and it still stands out amongst the best from his 2009 sophomore album The Boy Who Knew Too Much.

Mika – “I See You”