Produced by Ra Ra Riot and Andrew Maury and mixed by Chris Walla (with one assist from Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij), The Orchard is 10 more stunning offerings of the bittersweet and endearing Ra Ra Riot blend that Entertainment Weekly likened to “Unforgettable Fire-era U2.”
The Orchard’s full track listing is:
1. The Orchard
2. Boy
3. Too Dramatic
4. Foolish
5. Massachusetts
6. You and I Know
7. Shadowcasting
8. Do You Remember
9. Kansai
10. Keep It Quiet
The Orchard follows up Ra Ra Riot’s debut album, The Rhumb Line, released two years earlier (almost to the day) and immediately hailed as “a blissful chamber-pop breakthrough” in a 4-star Rolling Stone review (who named it the #38 album of 2008), and by Time Out New York as “classically pretty, but without getting all fussy about it.” The Rhumb Line debuted at #109 on the U.S. album chart and went on to sell in excess of 60,000 copies as the band’s live draw grew exponentially.
Ra Ra Riot is vocalist Wes Miles, bassist Mathieu Santos, guitarist Milo Bonacci, violinist Rebecca Zeller and cellist Alexandra Lawn. The Orchard marks the band’s first time the band has been joined in the studio by drummer Gabriel Duquette, who has toured with the band since the release of The Rhumb Line.