Spanning two decades of previously unreleased material, Love Is Overtaking Me finds a common thread in a somewhat traditional, guitar-driven framework; it links Arthur Russell's somewhat more well-known work as an avant-garde and disco musician to a profound singer/songwriter core. A few moments of wandering instrumentation—such as the beginning of the traditional "Goodbye Old Paint"—draw a direct parallel to Russell's instrumental First Thought Best Thought, but these moments of textural emphasis give way to an affected cowboy waltz. Belying an exceptional maturity, Love Is Overtaking Me shows Russell at his most simple, and as such, his most approachable. "Nobody Wants a Lonely Heart" is earnest, succinct, and universal in its upbeat lament of lonesomeness. Though his other work may lean to the arcane, this window into Russell's process acts almost as a decoder ring for it—the basic language that he developed into a complex aesthetic.