Another Thought by Arthur Russell (Vinyl, 1994)

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5065002003669

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Arthur Russell

Vinyl

1994

Another Thought

LP

Jazz Instrument

Personnel includes: Arthur Russell (vocals, cello). Originally released two years after his death, the compilation ANOTHER THOUGHT doesn't try to give an overview of Russell's wildly eclectic career. Rather, it focuses on his late work for voice and cello. These songs are intimate and spare, but that doesn't mean melancholy. Russell's voice is a kind of soulful mumble, mostly hushed but occasionally more insistent. The cello work is by turns lyrical and funky, full of a bubbling energy even on the slower numbers. Among other pleasures, ANOTHER THOUGHT includes a shorter version of Russell's wonderful "In the Light of the Miracle," a song that might come closest to his wish to make "Buddhist bubble-gum music."

Rolling Stone (4/20/95, p.72) - "...the confessional force and spatial beauty of [the late Arthur Russell's] songs and performances--there are potent echoes of Nick Drake and the chamber-art songs of John Cale and Laurie Anderson--have a poetic power that has outlived him..." Entertainment Weekly (11/25/94, p.77) - "...A cellist-singer-songwriter who died of AIDS in 1992....His flexible songcraft was brainy, warm, and dryly funny, as shown on this intimate, carefully assembled collection of '80s songs..." - Rating: A- Magnet (p.88) - "ANOTHER THOUGHT spotlights his solo music for voice, cello and effects, which is at once utterly charming and so retiring that its beauty nearly slides past you." The Wire (p.58) - "The selection shows off some of Russell's most brilliant characteristics, not least his marvelous ear for musical phrasing..." Melody Maker (5/20/95, p.37) - Recommended - "...Russell plays his cello in some ways like Hendrix played guitar...using echo, distortion, offbeat rhythms and effects to embellish and drench the songs...when he introduces rhythm programmes...you think of how Talking Heads might have sounded had they been less quirky and delved a few fathoms deeper..." Musician (10/94, p.84) - "...the most striking thing about this disc is how he's turned an amalgam of musics into a personal style...the lyrics, with their rush of words, are more nearly euphoric--expression, even of loss, becomes an occasion for wonderment...."

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