The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most is the second studio album recorded by the American emo band Dashboard Confessional. The album, released on March 20, 2001, features ten songs, which are all written by the lead vocalist of Dashboard Confessional, Chris Carrabba. The album has been certified Gold by the RIAA, meaning it sold over 500,000 copies in the United States. The album, according to Rock Sound, gave Dashboard Confessional "a ton of worldwide exposure." This resulted in Carrabba becoming "the poster boy for the emo resurgence of the early 2000s" and the album "defin[ing] an entire movement."