In the two years since New York’s Ra Ra Riot put out their debut album, lead singer Wes Miles teamed up with old pal and multi-tasking Vampire Weekend/Boys Like Us/summer song slinger Rostam Batmanglij for Discovery, a pop project framed as a deceptively adept love letter to electro-R&B, by an initially unlikely pair of genre enthusiasts. A certain shift from both dudes’ previous outputs, something Miles touched on in his Progress Report with Jessica:

Discovery’s influence isn’t sonic: “Doing Discovery helped me feel like you don’t really have to do what you think is good, you just do what you want. There’s a subtle difference,” he says. “We just wanted to make something that was uniquely ours. Even if less people will ultimately get it, that’s the plan.”

Shades of MGMT in that quote, maybe. But whatever your thoughts on The Rhumb Line — and from your Gummy ballots in 2008, in aggregate you think quite a lot of it — in my mind there’s a deep wellspring of goodwill for Ra Ra Riot. Because this is the band that wrote “Ghost Under Rocks” — a track that catches a band at the height of its abilities, damn near perfect for what it is trying to be: elegant and bittersweet orchestral indie pop, perfectly paced, given an unexpectedly wistful poignance with the tragic events that surrounded the band during its public bloom. The drummer that stepped into John Pike’s shoes after his death is now full-time with the band; the songwriting duties handled by Pike now shared by the band. And here, two years later, comes the first full MP3 from the band’s followup LP The Orchard: produced by Ra Ra Riot and Andrew Maury, with mixing from Chris Walla (plus one song by Rostam), and, at least on “Boy,” sure to speak to RRR’s core base.

• Ra Ra Riot – “Boy” 

Download it at rarariot.com. Here’s what the band looks like these days:

The Orchard is out 8/24 via Barsuk. It looks like this:

And there are a ton of tour dates:

07/21 – Hiroshima, Japan @ Hiroshima Club Quattro
07/23 – Yokohama, Japan @ Yokohama BLITZ
07/24 – Tokyo, Japan @ ZEPP
07/27 – Kyoto, Japan @ KSB Hall
07/28 – Kyoto, Japan @ KSB Hall
08/01 – Montreal, QC (Osheaga Festival)
08/04 – Columbus, OH @ Columbus State Fair w/Devo
08/28 -Toronto, ON @ Molson Amphitheater @!
09/05 – Seattle, WA (Bumbershoot)
09/09 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom/MFNW
09/12 – North Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival
09/18 – Geneva, NY @ Three Stories Benefit @ Cracker Factory
09/21 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
09/22 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
09/23 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
09/24 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
09/27 – Northampton, MA @ Pearl St.^
09/28 – New Haven, CT @ Toad’s Place^
09/29 – Providence, RI @ The Met^
10/01 – Boston, MA @ Royale^
10/02 – Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero^
10/03 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Diesel^
10/04 – Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig^
10/05 – Chicago, IL @ Metro^
10/07 – Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theatre^
10/08 – Omaha, NE @ Waiting Room^
10/11 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theatre^
10/12 – Salt Lake City, UT @ In the Venue^
10/13 – Crystal Bay, NV @ Crystal Bay Club^
10/17 – San Francisco, CA @ Treasure Island Music Festival
10/19 – Pomona, CA @ Glass House#
10/20 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Music Box @ Henry Fonda#
10/21 – San Diego, CA @ Belly Up Tavern#
10/22 – Tempe, AZ @ The Clubhouse#
10/24 – San Antonio, TX @ White Rabbits#
10/26 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s#
10/27 – Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live#
10/28 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theatre#
10/29 – Little Rock, AR @ Rev Room#
10/30 – Nashville, TN @ Exit/In#
11/01 – Birmingham, AL @ Workplay Theatre#
11/02 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade#
11/03 – Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel#
11/04 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle#
11/05 – Washington, DC @ 930 Club#
11/13 – Vancouver, BC @ The Commodore*
11/17 – Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall*
11/19 – Saskatoon, SK @ Louis’ Pub*
11/20 – Winnipeg, MB @ The Garric*

@ w/ Tegan & Sara
! w/ City & Colour
^ w/ Chikita Violenta
# w/ Givers
* w/ Wintersleep