“California One / Youth And Beauty Brigade” by The Decemberists

"California One / Youth And Beauty Brigade" is the song that handed the Decemberists the name of their first full-length album: the phrase Castaways and Cutouts is lifted from its lyric. Colin Meloy wrote the words and the music, the band produced it themselves, and Simon Widdowson did the recording. The record first surfaced on Hush Records on May 21, 2002, then got a second wind when Kill Rock Stars reissued it on May 6, 2003.

The sleeve came from Carson Ellis, Meloy's longtime girlfriend and later his wife, who has made the artwork for every Decemberists album. The album drew mostly warm notices, and Pitchfork eventually counted it among the 100 best albums of 2000 to 2004.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.