Arthur Russell: Love Is Overtaking Me : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Arthur Russell was the secret link between New York music scenes of the Seventies and Eighties — an experimental composer, a pathbreaking disco producer, a rocker in Talking Heads' orbit, a wildly original singer. His downfall, though, was a perfectionism that kept him from finishing his recordings. Culled from his ample archives, this set collects unheard pop songs from 1973 to 1991, a year before his death from AIDS-related complications. Russell's lighter-than-air voice, murmuring about big-city love, recalls Nick Drake, and his filigreed melodies are stingingly gorgeous. These bashed-out renditions sound open-ended, as if he meant to tweak them later. Still, lapidary songs like "Don't Forget About Me" are even more precious for having been snatched from the mouth of oblivion.