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ARTHUR RUSSELL MAKES ALL MY FAVORITE ALBUMS


Posted by Hartley On Oct 20, 2008

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It's true. Arthur Russell really does make all my favorite records. He was just too good at everything - and Audika is doing a killer job of helping more and more people to discover this fact. For crazy lo-fi, tape-recorded, disco-drone, karma-pop - it gets no better than Calling Out Of Context (Audika)- a collection of unreleased Arthur pop from a few years ago. For psych-tinged, ambient, new-age dub jams that were so ahead of their time, I'm still not sure culture has caught up to their relevance you must dig on Arthur's seminal masterwork, World of Echo (which Audika did a killer job of reissuing by the by). And now, finally, for those of us who cannot get enough of country-flavored folk pop we get Arthur's most "accessible" song-based recordings to date, the very wonderful and brand new: Love is Overtaking Me (Audika).

It looks like this:

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nice cowboy hat 

Once again, Audika has proverbially knocked it out the park with another sprawling collection of top-quality never-before-released sounds - this time with our man doing his best Every Brothers. The tracks that make up Love span Arthurs career from stuff he recorded in the early 70's right up until some of his very last recordings he made at home in 1991. Much of the collection is made up of stuff Arthur did with John Hammond, the legendary producer who worked with everyone from Billie Holiday to Bob Dylan. And yes, it's a rare treat to hear Arthur's ghostly tenor in the company of such pristine, tradional "band" accompaniment.

Obviously, it's brilliant. "Big Moon"sounds like Arthur fronting-an 80's incarnation of The Byrds - It's like the sing-a-long uptempo pop sister to Nick Drake's brooding standard, "Pink Moon". "Your Motion Says" woulda been a stand-out on any Talking Heads record. "Maybe She" - a melancholy Townes Van Zandt-style paen. "Time Away" - is on some anti-folk, Jeff Lewis meets The Modern Lovers, Jonathan Richman/Lou Reed shit. "What It's Like" is straight up Dazed and Confused-tinged, Lynyrd Skynyrd slow jam. Incredible. Every track is a stand-out, and if you've been hearing Arthur Russell's name, but have never heard his music, Love, 3 years in the making, culled from over 8+ hours of music, is the place to get in. Heed the calling....

Here's "Your Motion Says" off Love Is Overtaking Me new on Audika Records:

EXTRA CREDIT Y'ALL: go check out Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell at good movie theaters now. Even Jens Lekman loves this dude.

 

 

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