Various Artists - Master Mix: Red Hot + Arthur Russell

And yet it's this unfinished nature of Russell's music which endures, making Master Mix: Red Hot + Arthur Russell an intense labour of love for all twenty-one acts involved in its making. The latest in the long-running series of Red Hot AIDS fundraiser compilations, most recently notable for 2009's stellar Dark Was the Night album, works pretty well as a primer to Russell in its own right; the early disco experiments rub shoulders with his tentative stabs at weird country pop, which mingle comfortably with...well...whatever the fuck World of Echo was, and the range of genres Russell employed in his music allow the artists to interpret his self-described "sketches" in whatever way they want.

A few fall short at the first hurdle; Robyn tackles "Tell You (Today)" - Russell's finest disco number, which is still criminally only available on CD through an obscure, out-of-print disco compilation - by simply adding her vocals on top of what sounds suspiciously like the original track. The song's elastic euphoria remains, of course, but Robyn sounds uncharacteristically like she's phoning it in. On the other end of the spectrum, it's surprising how many of the artists here sound like they're playing Russell on Stars in Their Eyes, copping his gossamer-thin mouthful-of-marbles vocal style. It's an offputting trait, especially since most of the music behind these cuts is pretty interesting in its own right, and does nothing for the songs themselves. Cults offer up a song here as well. Why are they here? Hulk smash, etc.

Sufjan Stevens' "A Little Lost" fares much better; like the first recovery morning after the chronic malaise of the still-astonishing Age of Adz LP (note to self: dig out after writing review), Sufjan attaches queasy beats and stacked vocals onto one of Russell's most vulnerable songs without losing any of the original's delicacy. Hot Chip's stab at "Go Bang!" - all eleven minutes of it - makes you realise that they are the only band cheeky, ballsy and capable enough to do justice to this slab of modular disco. Think the best song Chic never wrote, composed in the same compartmentalised way that Brian Wilson wrote Smile, and you're close-but-nowhere-near.

Meanwhile, Liam Finn drags "This Love Is Crying" out of obscurity - with the help of Russell's early bandmates Ernie Brooks and Peter Zummo - turning an early seventies piece of country-pop into an immaculate kitchen sink production akin to Wilco's Summerteeth. Likewise, Phosphorescent tackles "You Can Make Me Feel Bad", stripping the original of its proto-shoegaze assault of droning fuzz and morphing it into a campfire singalong to just-as-heartbreaking effect. The album's biggest surprise, though, is Scissor Sisters' take on "That's Us/Wild Combination"; it starts off sounding like it will suffer the same fate as Robyn's track - all too similar to the original in the worst way - but this being the Scissor Sisters, it soon gives way to a relentless four-to-the-floor stomp, which simultaneously drags their music into the leftfield and Russell's back onto the dancefloor.

Familiarity with the source material isn't essential with this compilation, though those hearing these songs for the first time may be startled when they go back to the well to find out just how minimal the originals were. It takes guts to try and make songs this abstract your own - a previous run in with a Talk Talk tribute compilation springs to mind like a bad acid flashback - but Red Hot + Arthur Russell makes a valiant attempt and, more importantly, hangs together pretty well in its own right. "It's my world," runs the chorus of "I Couldn't Say It to Your Face", capably performed by Glen Hansard. "It's my song. I didn't ask you to sing along." Well, he may not have asked, but these 21 acts did anyway. And sure, at its worst, Red Hot + Arthur Russell shows up the limitations of the cover-album-as-form, but at its best, it's a thrilling tribute to a none-more-singular artist.