Singer/songwriter Will Orchard’s “Something’s Gotta Go” is a churning folk-rock upheaval – a raw reckoning, an intimate eruption, and an emotionally charged cry for change taken from his upcoming album, ‘Behind the Shadow Glass.’
for fans of Fruit Bats, Brian Dunne, Wilco, Zander Hawley
Stream: “Something’s Gotta Go” – Will Orchard
That’s the spirit of the song, just putting it all out there and letting go of your will to try so hard.
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There’s a fine line between clarity and collapse – and Will Orchard walks it with remarkable grace.
His latest single is a slow-burning implosion dressed in folk rock’s Sunday best: A poetic unraveling that’s as restless as it is resolute. “Feeling like a bag of nails, feeling like a windless sail,” he sings at the top, cracking open a litany of emotional weight and spiritual fatigue. From there, the blows keep coming. “Well something’s gotta go or something’s gotta come,” Orchard aches in the chorus. “Will I know what it is before the air leaves my lungs?” It’s a haunting question – a reckoning that speaks not only to personal crisis, but also to the universal tension of not knowing what comes next.
Breathtakingly intimate, achingly raw, and emotionally charged, “Something’s Gotta Go” is a churning, cathartic upheaval of the self: A visceral song of unrest, transition, and the desperate hope for change.
Feeling like a bag of nails
Feeling like a windless sail
Feeling like a party long over
Feeling like a three leaf clover
Feeling like a chipped tooth
Feeling like a phone booth
And it’s twenty twenty three
Am I living in a dream?
That just won’t end
I’m waking up and
Falling back in
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Something’s Gotta Go,” the third single off Will Orchard’s upcoming fourth studio album, Behind the Shadow Glass (set for release September 5, 2025). Following the previously released “Nothing Fog” and “Late Bloomer,” his latest track finds the Nashville-via-New England based indie folk artist leaning into his sharpest edges and softest confessions alike.
A longtime independent troubadour and folk singer/songwriter (whom Atwood Magazine previously praised for his “fresh folk tapestries” and “sweet DIY charm”), Will Orchard has built a reputation for poetic introspection, stirring melodies, and an earnest, open-hearted spirit. Behind the Shadow Glass is his most ambitious and expansive work yet – a home-recorded album bursting with color, catharsis, and the kind of truth that doesn’t need to rhyme to hit hard.
Well something’s gotta go
Or something’s gotta come
Will I know what it is
Before the air leaves my lungs
As relentless as it is radiant, “Something’s Gotta Go” is as good a track as any to introduce Orchard’s latest era of unfiltered, unapologetic self-expression.
A dramatic wall of keys and overdriven guitars makes for a powerful bed of sound as he holds a harsh mirror up to himself, buoyed by the harsh light of day and a sense of fracture, inner tension, and increasing pressure and pain within. His lyrics cut to the core as his music shimmers and soars. The result is a snapshot of the soul in a moment of strife and struggle – tempered in some ways, a tempest in others.
“‘Something’s Gotta Go’ is a cathartic release, and an acknowledgement of self-inflicted pain,” Orchard tells Atwood Magazine. “It’s about getting into the pattern of never being satisfied with yourself, and defining yourself by external factors. These lyrics are some of the more loose, fun lyrics I’ve written. Calling the song ‘finished’ was somewhat of a challenge because of how raw and in some ways, non-poetic it felt. But that’s the spirit of the song, just putting it all out there and letting go of your will to try so hard.”
For the last six years
I have been checking my phone
Waiting for good news
And driving round alone
Tryna make a mountain
Out of pieces of sand
And all I got
Was a sandcastle
Gonna knock it all down
And let the hermit crabs
Live in the ruins
Well something’s gotta go
Or something’s gotta come
Will I know what it is
Before it’s already done
There’s a beautifully unvarnished quality to this song – as if Orchard wrote it with the lights off and the door cracked open.
The verses are flooded with images of listlessness, frustration, and fragility: “For the last six years I have been checking my phone, waiting for good news and driving round alone,” he sings, before admitting, “All I got was a sandcastle.” The song spirals deeper with every verse, capturing a mind caught in a loop – chasing purpose, failing to find footing, and grappling with a numbness that’s almost more terrifying than fear. “I wish I was afraid, but it feels like nothing at all,” he confesses near the end. “Tumbling down these hills so long that the ground’s become a ball.” It’s dizzying and devastating – like looking inward and watching your own reflection dissolve in the rain.
Orchard’s performance is understated but unwavering: His voice stays close to the chest, even as the music swells around him. There’s a gorgeous tension between restraint and release – between the lush textures and the wounded lyrics. Subtle harmonies from Jess Kerber, dynamic drumming by James Goodwin, and a gently chugging groove give the track its infectious pulse, but the power lies in the words and the way Orchard delivers them: Earnest, hurting, and just barely holding on.
And I’ve got no one to blame
It’s like trying to outrun my legs
And I’m starting at myself
Distorted reflection in the rain
Well something’s gotta go
Or something’s gotta come
Will I know what it is
Before the air leaves my lungs
With “Something’s Gotta Go,” Will Orchard offers no easy answers – only the raw reality of needing a change, and not knowing what form it might take.
It’s the kind of song you play at your wit’s end, or when you’re staring out a rain-soaked window wondering how you got here. And in its stark honesty, it somehow brings a bit of peace – or at the very least, solidarity.
Let this song break you open and leave you just a little more whole. Stream “Something’s Gotta Go” exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and stay tuned for Will Orchard’s Behind the Shadow Glass, out September 5th!
I’m a little more confused
And not sure why I’m here
All the purpose I once had
Feels like long dried up tears
And I wish I was afraid
But it feels like nothing at all
Tumbling down these hills so long
That the ground’s become a ball
And I wish I was afraid
But it feels like nothing at all
Tumbling down these hills so long
That the ground’s become a ball
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:: stream/purchase Behind the Shadow Glass here ::
:: connect with Will Orchard here ::
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Stream: “Something’s Gotta Go” – Will Orchard
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© Jess Kerber art © Adi Dahlke
© Jess Kerber
art © Adi Dahlke:: Stream Will Orchard ::
