"Love is Over Taking Me"
(Audika Records)
eight / ten
|
|
ARTHUR RUSSELL "Love is Over Taking Me" (Audika Records)
eight / ten |
Arthur Russell never got the recognition he deserved while he was alive. This makes the posthumous rediscovery and subsequent re-emergence of the cellist, composer, disco pioneer, and outer-limits songwriter as one of the most diverse and seminal artists of the late 20th century, both important and gratifying.
Russell had a prodigious output but was a notorious malcontent, never satisfied and was constantly searching for a sonic nirvana, a place where his appetite for music perfection could be sated. He never did find that place, but the search was not in vain as he left behind an incredible surfeit of ideas and creative expression after his death from AIDS in 1992.
In 2006 Audika Records embarked on the onerous task of trawling through Russell's mountain of recordings, bring his work to a wider audience. Previous compilations were greeted fervently by both critics and new-found fans. The fifth, 'Love is Overtaking Me' is perhaps the most contentious, given that is focuses on Russell's early period folk, and country-tinged pop numbers, and offers few glimpses of the experimental avenues he was later to explore.
Given his reputation as an off-piste musical innovator, there is some- thing incongruous about the opening bars of folk porch-song 'Close My Eyes' which kicks of this compilation. The song - an unaccompanied acoustic number - is tender and twee, but charming and accessible, and rooted by Russell's beguiling, plaintive timbre. Although the song is not entirely representative of all the music on the album, it captures the essence of a compilation that lets Russell's wonderful voice run free. This voice is a world away from his reverb-drenched 'World Of Echo' era, or his disco cameos, or his avant-garde experiments, but it still maintains that transcendental, captivating mystique.
Most songs display a remarkable pop sensibility and one can only assume that he found writing catchy, hook-laden tunes just too easy. Russell purists may balk at brilliant, breezy pop numbers like 'Your Motion Says' and 'Habit of You' or the country-lite of 'Big Moon' and 'I Forgot and I Can't Tell', but on Russell's odyssey, these demos were important pieces that formed a breadcrumb trail which gave him direction. As if to compound this argument, the album's best and next-to-last track 'Planted a Thought' marries Russell's trademark cello with uptempo drums and regimented bass line in a breath-taking fusion. It validates all that went before, while offering a glimpse of what was to come.
Mark Keane
www.audikarecords.com
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................