Taches Violettes

click this thing to the right. Habit of You by Arthur Russell. Listen to the song. Listen to everything else that Arthur is made, or skip that for now and read the thing below.

this song should be 6 minutes long (like so much of his other stuff). why does the cacophony of arthurs going "a habit of you/is hard to give up" fade out so quickly? why does it start out so bright, like it should be a stop motion musical number at the beginning of a children's animated film? who gave him the right to do that in a song so hopeless about shaking a crush?

there's even squeaking string sounds that make me think a rodent shrunk to the atomic level and is now scurrying through my headphone wire. Arthur's singing about orange birthday cake. he thinks he can get away with whimsy while breaking my fucking heart.