From the Vaults Friday: Arthur Russell, Another Thought (1994)

The Year: 1994
The Album: Arthur Russell, Another Thought
Who It Influenced: Jens Lekman, Final Fantasy, Grizzly Bear, the Hidden Cameras, Hercules and Love Affair

In this opinion-saturated online era, rare is the artist who can make a listener feel as if they've stumbled onto some precious secret. Arthur Russell's ghostly, posthumously-issued, long-lost recordings have that feeling. Despite their ever-growing, increasingly clamorous critical acclaim, to hear them now is to forge some personal connection to the artist himself; to enter into the intimate, almost clandestine soundworlds Russell created.

After Russell died in 1992, at the age of just 39, Another Thought was assembled from the piles upon piles of unreleased cassettes the prolific-yet-protective, ever-obsessive cellist/songwriter/producer left behind. Russell had been largely ignored when alive and at work in the mid-'80s, and not even his death stirred up more interest: Another Thought —a pitch-perfect collation of sweetly ballads set to a soft electro-pulse, with a few disco outbursts keeping things off-kilter— pretty much sunk without a trace when issued in 1994, soon going out of print.

But over the years, more and more artists have discovered Russell; have been drawn into his insular, intimate music. Recent years have showed a distinct movement of Russellphilia, from Matt Wolf's tender documentary Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, to Swedish crooner Jens Lekman's humble tribute to the fallen disco angel, Four Songs by Arthur Russell.

Yet, no matter how public and/or popular the beatification of Russell becomes, every person who 'discovers' his music, forevermore, will surely have the feeling of personal connection, of genuine, individual discovery. Which suggests the legacy of Arthur Russell will live long and prosper.

• Full review: Arthur Russell, Another Thought
• Review: Arthur Russell, Love is Overtaking Me
• DVD Review: Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell