The 1981 Listening Post - Robert Ellis Orrall - Fixation

 Reviewed by Stephen Romone Lewis / LISTENING POST DISCOVERY

Released: 1981 Robert Ellis Orrall Fixation Genre: New Wave Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Highlights: White Noise Hit Man But No Call The Uh-Oh Squad Problem With Women In ‘81 I bought a compilation called Blits because the cover showed bayonet wielding soldiers with fire-engine red eyes and not because I was so cool that I had heard of any of the bands on it. Robert Ellis Orral contributed 2 awesome tunes: “White Noise'' and "Call the Uh-oh Squad”. Those are also the best songs on Fixation. The slicing guitar crunch of “White Noise" should have been a national hit. The riff is infectious and Robert’s vocals sound like screams from a rubber room. “Uh-oh Squad” is a dark new-wave novelty song about a group you could hire to clean up embarrassing problems. For example - if you killed your wife’s lover. I remember hours gathered around a baby grand with my pre-teen friends and an untunable Kent guitar trying to cover “Uh-oh Squad”. Overall Fixation sounds like Bob listened to a lot of Devo, Elvis Costello and early Joe Jackson. His voice is a less bombastic version of Human Sexual Response’s frontman Larry Bangor. Growing up in Winthrup, MA, Orral would have heard a lot of Human Sexual Response on Boston radio, and he probably met them as he worked his way up in the Boston club scene. Production is good throughout. Do you like vocal harmonies? He’s got that. Interesting guitar solos. Check. Every song is well constructed and very listenable. If I have a complaint it’s that half the songs are clearly pop tunes, and the other half are rock tunes. Nothing wrong with that, but they’re mixed together, with the rockers bristling with anxious energy followed by a slick little love song. Bob promoted Fixation by opening for U2 and The Kinks, lucky bastard, but he wouldn’t touch the charts until his 3rd LP and the single "I Couldn't Say No". You might not immediately start humming the tune, or have the skinny-tied video pop into your head, but I promise you, you heard it. It’s a duet with Carlene Carter. Carter, daughter of June Carter Cash, used the hit to jumpstart a successful Country music career. Robert traded in his Ric Ocasek suits for some bigass beltbuckles and followed her to Nashville. He recorded country music solo and in the award winning duo Orral & Wright, but his biggest successes were as a songwriter and producer. He penned tunes for Reba, Lindsey Lohan, and Taylor Swift and produced Swift’s records Be Your Own Pet and Love and Theft.