The Orion Songbook is the debut album by Frontier Ruckus, released on November 6, 2008.
Reception
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."[7] 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."[8] 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."[9] 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]