"Cute Without the 'E' (Cut From the Team)" by Taking Back Sunday from the album Tell All Your Friends (2002)

The entirety of Taking Back Sunday’s masterful debut album was one bloody, bare-chested “fuck you” to every pretty girl who ever took a sensitive boy’s heart and stepped all over it on her way to something better. On one of the rawest, Adam Lazzara balances naked emotion and seething rage with impressive — and fiercely compelling — dexterity. This song might not be much more than wishful thinking but he makes [damn] sure we know exactly what’s on his mind. Making good use of those ragged, straining vocals over insistent guitars and drums, Lazzara yowls his pain at the girl’s closed bedroom window while she gets cozy with her new squeeze. He loves her, but god damn if he doesn’t hate her, too.

_Alexandra Cavallo