"The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows" by Brand New from the album Deja Entendu (2003)

There’s a reason we were all referring to Brand New’s Jesse Lacey as the next Morrissey around the time of this near-perfect 2003 single. In a genre notable for its predictably broken-hearted navel gazing doggerel, Lacey embraced a broader, poetic panorama, with the lyrics to songs like this soaring, euphoric power-ballad making it known to his peers that they would need to step up their scribbling game. “I lie for only you,” he sang, “And I lie well. Hallelujah.” No coincidence on the religious undertones there — hearing this one performed live is a transcendent revivalist preacher sermon for all the sad young literary kids.

_Luke O’Neil