“Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect” by The Decemberists

"Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect" comes from Castaways and Cutouts, the Decemberists' first full-length album, which Hush Records put out in May 2002 before Kill Rock Stars reissued it the following year. Frontman Colin Meloy wrote the words and music, and the band produced it themselves, with Simon Widdowson recording.

The title alone tells you this is a band with a bookish streak. The album came wrapped in a cover by Portland artist Carson Ellis, Meloy's longtime girlfriend and later his wife, who has drawn the art for every Decemberists album since, and critics mostly took to it: Pitchfork later counted it among the best albums of 2000 to 2004.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.