A favorite song that nobody had ever heard sat in the vault for decades. Boston singer-songwriter Robert Ellis Orrall has finally released it, as the title track to his new album ‘Wonderland,’ out now via Fixation Records. The record gathers a freshly produced batch of unreleased songs from his seemingly endless creative vault, plus a reimagining of a fairly famous track he co-wrote with Taylor Swift two decades ago.
The collection takes its name from the MBTA’s Blue Line stop near Orrall’s North Shore home, and the songs share a theme. “I spent many years writing songs for other artists, and along the way, I wrote songs for me to record but I never released them,” Orrall admits. “Some of my favorite songs ever, in fact. Now that I’m back performing and recording with my original band, it was time to release this collection into the world.”
The title track came out of a search through his own catalogue. “Someone asked me ‘What is your favorite song you ever wrote?’, and I reflexively said I don’t think I could pick one, there are over 2000 in my catalog, including over 350 cuts,” Orrall says with a laugh. “But I thought it would be fun to revisit a few hundred songs to see if I really could pick a favorite. The clear winner was a song that has never been cut, really never been heard by anyone. It’s called ‘Wonderland.’ Sad songs are my favorite songs, and this one is the saddest of them all.” It opens the album with a grand orchestral arrangement conducted by David Hofner, setting the thematic tone before the record turns toward Orrall’s more upbeat nature.
Lead single “Brand New Me” is where that energy kicks in, a shoulder-swaying anthem fit for arenas and post-Valentine’s playlists. “I love the way this song kicks off with drums and sparkling electric guitars,” he reveals, “and the lyric dives right into a back-handed admission of guilt and the lament that although he has supposedly fixed all his flaws, she’s not around to see it. He’s sad, he’s angry, he’s sorry and he’s showing off at the same time.” Orrall is obsessed with harmonies, sometimes stacking as many as 20 vocal tracks, and that love runs through the whole set.
The deeper cuts keep the unrequited-love thread going. “I’m Coming With You” rides a cruising piano and guitar groove, the smoky “I Disappear” came from his work with Juan Carlos Perez Soto, and the glam-tinged “Carol Ann” was co-written with Plain White T’s frontman Tom Higgenson of “Hey There Delilah” fame. “End Title Song” nods to Orrall’s screen work, which most famously includes “Ultimate,” written for Lindsay Lohan and heard at the end of 2003’s Freaky Friday, then rebooted by The Beaches for last year’s Freakier Friday.
The album also folds in one Swift collaboration. “I’m Only Me (When I’m With You),” first made famous on the deluxe edition of Swift’s 2006 debut, trades the original’s guitar-pop propulsion for an orchestral ballad. “When Angelo Petraglia and I wrote the song with Taylor for her debut album, it was a fun uptempo declaration of love,” Orrall recalls. Now 45 years into a loving marriage, he reads it differently, “like in a I-can’t-imagine-life-without-you kind of way,” and reworked it accordingly, adding a note of hope to a record otherwise built on longing.
Orrall’s history runs deep. RCA Records signed him in 1980 alongside his dream band of Kook Lawry (guitars), Don Walden (bass), and David Stefanelli (drums), part of a New Wave of Boston artists who rocked The Rat, the Paradise, and the Orpheum and toured with U2, The Kinks, and the Psychedelic Furs. After the band dissolved in the mid-’80s, Orrall moved to Nashville and became a prolific songwriter and producer, earning five Number 1 songs, helping launch Swift’s career on her 10x-platinum debut, and founding indie label Infinity Cat Recordings. The band reformed in 2021 and has released five albums since. Across ‘Wonderland”s 10 songs, Orrall calls them “10 singles for single people,” finally getting the release they deserve.
Live Dates:
August 7 – The Cut, Gloucester, MA
September 3 – Wildcat Outdoor Concert Series, Jackson, NH