Youth & Young Manhood

The first album was recorded at Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, Sound City Studios in Van Nuys and Ocean Way Studios in Nashville, with Ethan Johns as producer, mixer and engineer. It ends with a hidden track, Talihina Sky, which turns up after about four minutes of silence following Holy Roller Novocaine. Four of the five songs on the Holy Roller Novocaine EP reappeared here, though the band redid California Waiting for the album after the EP version was recorded in a rush. The singles were Molly's Chambers (number 23 in the UK), Wasted Time (51) and California Waiting (61), and Red Morning Light went out as a promotional single. Red Morning Light also appeared in a Ford Focus commercial and in the video game FIFA 2004, and Holy Roller Novocaine in the film Talladega Nights.

The album reached number 3 in the UK and finished outside the top 100 in the US. Metacritic scores it 79 from 21 reviews. Rolling Stone's critics named it tenth best of 2003 and NME seventh best, and Rolling Stone later placed it at number 80 on its list of the best albums of the decade. In the Guardian, Betty Clarke called the band the kind of authentic, hairy rebels the Rolling Stones longed to be. Rolling Stone's Greg Kot described the guitar-playing as staggering-drunk solos. Pitchfork's Scott Plagenhoef was negative about the record but called Happy Alone the strongest track. The record is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.