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- Date Released: October 28, 2008
- Genre: Country/Folk
- Label: Rough Trade / Beggars Group
Another side of the border-crossing chameleon of downtown New York
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We Say...
The producer of outré compositional music, disco and new wave as well as uniquely ethereal voice-cello dub and hip-hop-inflected pop, Arthur Russell moved within and between the aesthetically progressive music scenes of downtown New York with unsurpassed mobility and open-mindedness. Largely unrecognized during his liminal lifetime, the composer and multi-instrumentalist died of complications arising from AIDS in 1992 a forlorn and largely isolated figure. Yet since the beginning of 2004, when Audika Records and Soul Jazz released two posthumous albums more or less simultaneously, interest in Russell's life and music has surged like never before. Audika's fifth offering, Love Is Overtaking Me reveals yet another Russell; not the border-crossing experimentalist who floated across downtown New York with effortless ease, but the Iowan-born singer-songwriter who hoped to touch listeners with songs of simplicity and beauty.
Presenting 21 home recordings and studio demos that were laid down solo or with a series of mutating line-ups including Bright and Early, the Sailboats, Turbo Sporty and, perhaps most influentially, the Flying Hearts, the album veers from melodic country ("Close My Eyes") to voice-cello odes ("Eli") to uplifting pop ("I Forget and I Can't Tell") and melancholy ballads ("Love Is Overtaking Me"). Delicate yet direct, these and other tracks are the ideal showcase for a singer-songwriter who once managed to convince legendary A&R executive John Hammond he could be the next Dylan or Springsteen. Drawn from an archive of some 800 reel-to-reel tapes, the songs on Love Is Overtaking Me have an unfinished quality. Far from reducing their appeal, though, that half-done effect only draws the listener deeper into the beautiful mystery that was Arthur Russell. -
They Say...
Since 2005, New York City's Audika imprint has dedicated itself to releasing the recordings of the late composer, cellist, and singer/songwriter Arthur Russell, a musical polymath who was as comfortable in the discos of Manhattan as he was in a cowboy hat in the fields as he appears here, on the cover of Love Is Overtaking Me. Audika has issued four albums -- three different compilations centering on different aspects of his musical adventurousness, an EP, and his seminal World of Echo album. Love Is Overtaking Me contains 21 tracks recorded between 1974 and 1990. It reveals another dimension of this seemingly limitless musician: his pop and country-ish recordings, done solo as demos, in session with the brilliant John Hammond at Columbia, and with musicians from the East Village and downtown scenes including Peter Gordon Ernie Brooks, Andy Paley, Jerry Harrison, Steven Hall, Larry Saltzman, Jon Gibson, Jimmy Chamberlain, David Van Tieghem, and Peter Zummo. Some of these are rehearsal versions of tunes he performed and recorded with his bands the Flying Hearts and the Sailboats project with Hall. Russell's companion Tom Lee wrote the liner notes to this set and discusses the sheer possibility for mass appeal in these songs; he's not exaggerating. Take a listen to the demo of the title track recorded with Hall on guitar, drummer Rob Shepperson, and conguero Mustafa Khaliq Ahmed. Its verse/chorus structure is woven straight from classic organic pop/rock melody -- think a less twisted Jonathan Richman -- and is utterly infectious. Elsewhere, in "I Couldn't Say It to Your Face," one can hear traces of John Lennon, James Taylor, and Randy Newman. Recorded by Hammond, this cut featured a full band with Gibson, Brooks, Gordon, Paley, trombonist Garrett List, and bassist Jon Sholle. The melody shimmers underneath a lyric that contains warmth, love, anger, and irony. The very next track, "This Time Dad You're Wrong," with a standard rock quartet, features a shuffling country rhythm under a melody that combines the sophistication of Big Star and the poetic directness of Willie Nelson. The latter is exaggerated a bit on the spoken/sung "What It's Like," but it's a story song and it works. The opening number, "Close My Eyes," is a pure country waltz, with Russell accompanying himself on a guitar -- he was almost as deft on it as he was on cello. These tunes reflect Russell's California origins. But there's the other side too; the New York side in the rockin' "Big Moon" and "Janine," which, though utterly friendly and even beautiful, is a kind of fractured future pop that transcends its form. On "Love Comes Back," Russell accompanies himself with a cheap drum machine and keyboards; he closes the entire argument as to what he was about artistically no matter how wide-ranging his recordings were: he was a composer and songwriter who wished -- and succeeded -- to express tenderness, empathy, and gentleness in everything he did. Russell's music connected with so many of his peers -- no matter what scene they were in -- and with his posthumous listeners for that reason alone. Russell was 100-percent genuine, and as Ted Berrigan once wrote, "on the level, everyday." This is one of the finest chapters yet in Audika's continuing retrospective. Let's hope there is still more where this came from.
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| 01. |  |
Close My Eyes |
2:36 |
|
| 02. | |
Goodbye Old Paint |
3:41 |
|
| 03. | |
Maybe She |
2:53 |
|
| 04. | |
Oh Fernanda Why |
2:42 |
|
| 05. | |
Time Away |
2:14 |
|
| 06. | |
Nobody Wants A Lonely Heart |
2:28 |
|
| 07. | |
I Couldn’t Say It To Your Face |
2:38 |
|
| 08. | |
This Time Dad You’re Wrong |
2:29 |
|
| 09. | |
What It’s Like |
5:45 |
|
| 10. | |
Eli |
1:56 |
|
| 11. | |
Hey! How Does Everybody Know |
4:11 |
|
| 12. | |
I Forget And I Can’t Tell (Ballad Of The Lights Pt. 1) |
2:04 |
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| 13. | |
Habit Of You |
3:14 |
|
| 14. | |
Janine |
2:11 |
|
| 15. | |
Big Moon |
2:17 |
|
| 16. | |
Your Motion Says |
2:42 |
|
| 17. | |
The Letter |
4:16 |
|
| 18. | |
Don’t Forget About Me |
3:30 |
|
| 19. | |
Love Is Overtaking Me |
3:42 |
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| 20. | |
Planted A Thought |
3:31 |
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| 21. | |
Love Comes Back |
3:39 |
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21 Total Tracks, 64:39 Total Length
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Credits
- Arthur Russell - Guitar // Arthur Russell - Cello // Arthur Russell - Keyboards // Arthur Russell - Vocals // Arthur Russell - Producer // Arthur Russell - Drum Programming // Arthur Russell - Linn Drum // Jerry Harrison - Organ // John Bergamo - Tabla // David LaFlamme - Violin // Garrett List - Trombone // Sid Page - Violin // Jon Sholle - Guitar // Peter Zummo - Trombone // Michael Adams - Flute // Bob Blank - Engineer // Joyce Bowden - Vocals // Ernie Brooks - Bass // Ernie Brooks - Compilation Producer // Jesse Chamberlain - Drums // Dr. Rick Jaeger - Drums // Jason Klagstad - Guitar // Bob Maize - Bass // Andy Paley - Drums // Jonathan Paley - Guitar // Jonathan Paley - Drums // Jonathan Paley - Tambourine // Larry Saltzman - Guitar // David Vartanian - Engineer // Steve Warren - Bass // Steven Miglio - Art Direction // Steven Miglio - Design // John Scherman - Guitar // Paul Gold - Mastering // Tom "Sisu" Lee - Liner Notes // Tom "Sisu" Lee - Compilation Producer // Mustafa Khaliq Ahmed - Percussion // Mustafa Khaliq Ahmed - Conga // Steve Knutson - Executive Producer // Steve Knutson - Compilation Producer // Randy Gunn - Guitar // John F. Hammond - Producer // Steven Hall - Guitar (Acoustic) // Steven Hall - Guitar // Steven Hall - Guitar (Electric) // Steven Hall - Vocals // Steven Hall - Vocals (Background) // Mark Friedman - Engineer
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