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┌────────┐ ██▀▀
────┤ Info ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
Artist | Linda Smith
Title | Till Another Time: 1988-1996
Genre | Indie Format | Album
Source | CD Time | 43:46
Label | Captured Tracks Store | 2021
Catalog | CT-355 Rip | 2021
Bitrate | 644 kbps Size | 210.97 MB
Freq | 44.1 kHz Encoder | FLAC 1.3.1
┌────────┐
────┤ Tracks ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
01. I See Your Face 2:52
02. In This 2:59
03. A Crumb Of Your Affection 3:51
04. All I Did 2:40
05. Till Another Time (Alternate Lo-Fi Mix) 3:52
06. Gorgeous Weather 5:14
07. I'll Never See You Again 4:08
08. I Just Had To 4:01
09. Imaginary Conversation 3:41
10. There's A 3:03
11. Wandering You Know 3:04
12. I So Liked The Spring (1996 Version) 4:21
┌────────┐
────┤ Notes ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
Linda Smith's gentle but unconventional songwriting and experiments with
four-track production in the late 80's found her at the beginning of a
home-recording movement that would set the pace for decades of indie rock
that followed. During her most active times, Smith's music was limited
mostly to obscure cassette and 7" releases, but her early approach to
bedroom pop was revisited on the 2021 retrospective compilation "Til
Another Time (1988-1996)".
Smith was born and raised in Baltimore but relocated to Brooklyn, New York
in the 80's. There she played in several bands, including the Silly Pillows
and the Woods. She purchased a four-track cassette recorder to make demos
to share with her bandmates, but quickly found herself drawn to the
specific charms and limitations of home recording. The Woods disbanded
around 1987, but Smith continued working on solo recordings, eventually
collecting some of her earliest material on the 1987 cassette-only The
Space Between The Buildings.
Her sounds ranged from moody, ethereal balladry to fuzzy proto-indie, all
of it bearing similarities to the C-86 movement and the burgeoning K
Records scene of the same period. Throughout the late '80s and early '90s,
Smith released multiple collections of her songs, including cassettes with
small lo-fi labels Shrimper and her own Preference Recordings, her 1995
album Nothing Else Matters, and several 7" singles with indie labels
Slumberland and Harriet Records. She continued making music into the 2000s,
releasing two new albums, Emily's House and Something New!, in 2001 and
collecting older material on compilations like 2014's All the Stars That
Never Were.
With a knack for writing moody songs that sound like the marriage of
early-80's Cherry Red artists like Marine Girls and some very quiet,
perfectly constructed jangle pop from later in the decade, Smith recorded a
wealth of under-the-radar indie pop gems at home on a four-track recorder
in the late '80s and early '90s. Releasing tapes on her own Preference
label at first, she joined forces with classic indie labels Harriet,
Slumberland, and Feel Good All Over for singles and albums that have easily
stood the test of time and, if anything, sound freshly minted on this
collection on Captured Tracks.
"Till Another Time (1988-1996)" juxtaposes Smith's earliest, most lo-fi
recordings with later work that graduated to a few more tracks and a solid
mid-fi rating. Unlike many artists of the era who utilized the hiss and
fuzz of cheap cassette recording to make noise a part of their sound, Smith
was writing classically constructed pop songs that sounded tinny only
because of the medium they were created on. Given a studio full of guitars,
strings, and percussion, songs as emotional as "There's A..." could have
had all the epic power of a Bacharach classic; kitted out with a drum set
and the energy of a live band, "In This" could have had all the punch of
the Shop Assistants at their finest.
Of course, the home-cooked nature of the recordings is part of their
lasting charm, but one shouldn't overlook just how strong the melodies are,
how inventive her shoestring arrangements are, or how resonant Smith's
lovelorn vocals are. Proof that her songs had enough power to transcend the
restrictions of lo-fi come on the tracks here that were recorded for 1996's
Nothing Else Matters album. "I See Your Face" and "I'll Never See You
Again" lose none of their impact from being a little clearer and slightly
better recorded. The 1996 version of "I So Liked the Spring" has absolutely
no hiss or warble and is possibly her most impressive recording of all.
Captured Tracks does a fine job of presenting all aspects of Smith's work
during this short period, and the set should serve as a reminder for the
few who appreciated her at the time as well as anyone smart enough to
discover her now for the first time. The only thing better than this
collection would have been a box set of all her recordings from the era.
Till then, this will be just fine.
┌────────┐
────┤░░░░░░░░├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘