It started out as an American road song, but Every Passing Mile ended up telling a very different story. As it weaves through a haunting soundscape of minor chords and swirling harmonies, and images of man “counting wires and poles along the pine”, the tale begins to come into focus: a man forced onto the road, driven by a sense of desire he can’t escape. As he brings us into the chorus by stating “I see her with every passing mile”, the title’s music video introduces an evocative “woman in white”, a figure which follows him throughout his journey. In the second verse, he reveals that he carries an image of this woman with him, depicted in the video as white lace with her lips marked in red. This symbol serves as a reminder of the power she holds over him, and his willingness to carry her with him as if he might use the thought of her as a drug at any moment. “Like a train along the tracks”, the woman in white seems to be destined to collide with him, bringing him relief and pulling him back into an addictive relationship all at once. As he attempts to escape this, we see him move further away from society, leaving his own home and eventually winding deep into the woods. When the instrumental solo smoothly rolls in, we are returned to the previous night, where we witness just what he’s running from: the woman in white visited unannounced in the night, pulls him into a trance, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy.
