“Love Comes Back” is one of the last songs Arthur Russell was working on before he became too ill to do much of anything. The version of it that appeared on Love Is Overtaking Me is a simple, keyboard and drum machine home recording that likely would have been reimagined and tinkered with endlessly had Arthur lived long enough to do so. While he still could, he sang the song to his partner Tom Lee every day, the significance of the lyrics becoming more and more meaningful as Russell came closer to death: “Love comes back / Being sad is not a crime / Once you know that / Love is back.”

For Arthur Russell, music was a constant and integral part of being alive, and there was nothing more powerful and expressive than a song, a voice, an instrument. Music could touch, heal and transform, and transcend even death.