The Orion Songbook
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Orion Songbook | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 6, 2008 | |||
| Genre | Folk rock | |||
| Language | English | |||
| Label | Quite Scientific Records | |||
| Frontier Ruckus chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Under the Radar | |
| Crawdaddy! | (Favorable)[3] |
| [Hear/Say] | (A−)[4] |
| Real Detroit Weekly | |
| Metro Times | (Favorable)[6] |
The Orion Songbook is the debut album by Frontier Ruckus, released on November 6, 2008. Pronounced (/ˈɒriən/ ORR-ee-ən), the title is a reference to the Michigan town of Lake Orion in northern Metro Detroit.[7]
The album received positive reviews, with Allmusic stating that it is "about as good a debut as a band can hope for."[1] Crawdaddy! praised the album's musical and lyrical landscapes, marked by the "desolate beauty of Matthew Milia's poetry and the quiet intensity the band brings to every note it plays."[8] The album received similar applause from Under the Radar regarding the interplay of musicality and language, described as "white-hot folk music" paired with "dank and smart turns of phrase."[9] Hear/Say called The Orion Songbook "the year's best alt-country album," establishing the band as a "formidable outfit with a sound to reckon with and an easy confidence to match."[4] Likewise, Metro Times stated that the album "establishes the group as already one of the very best sounds to come out of Michigan this entire decade."[10] Inland Empire Weekly commended the record for its consideration of memory "without the cloying nostalgia or self-consciousness that derails so many attempts to turn back the clock to allegedly purer times," going on to state: "...by looking the present straight in the eye, Milia’s created something timeless."[11]
Adult Swim used "Dark Autumn Hour" for four ads in their well-known series of bumps, first airing in September 2011.[12]
Track listing
All songs written by Matthew Milia
- "Animals Need Animals"
- "The Latter Days"
- "What You Are"
- "Dark Autumn Hour"
- "Mount Marcy"
- "The Blood"
- "Bethlehem"
- "Foggy Lilac Windows"
- "Orion Town 2"
- "The Back-Lot World"
- "Rosemont"
- "Orion Town 3"
- "Adirondack Amish Holler"
- "The Deep-Yard Dream"
Personnel
- Frontier Ruckus
- Matthew Milia - lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, pedal steel guitar, piano, chord organ
- David Winston Jones - banjo, voice, ebow
- Eli Eisman - bass
- Ryan "Smalls" Etzcorn - drum kit, all percussions, mallet-saw, chain-rattle, stomping
- Zachary Nichols - trumpet, singing-saw, melodica, mallet-saw
- Anna Burch - voice, harmonium, piano
- Guest Musicians