Home Truths
Hidden treasures from 90s lo-fi cult hero. By Chris Roberts
Linda Smith Nothing Else Matters ★★★★
Captured Tracks CT 370 LPC 1 (LP) I So Liked Spring ★★★★
Captured Tracks CT 371 LPC 1 (LP)
Bedroom recording is now both commonplace and convincing. Back in the late 80s and early 90s, this wasn’t the case, as home demos were whispered and tracked almost apologetically. They were considered mere scribbled notes, for a “proper” studio’s reference. Some, however, turned limitations into strengths. Few more effectively than Linda Smith, the Baltimore-born Brooklyn resident whose sketchings – initially intended for her then band – became more significant than their planned blossoming. Her cult status has morphed into full-on mythology since the 2021 compilation Til Another Time. Now her catalogue of lo-fi creativity receives another boost with the release of two full albums, previously only available on – and if this isn’t “indie” and “authentic”, what is? – cassette.
Nothing Else Matters (1995) was scratched out while Smith had an unglamorous day job, but that enabled her to go rather fancy, switching up from a 4-track to a Fostex 8-track. Yet the reason these decent but not mindblowing songs work is because her arrangements do so much with so little.
We’re not talking Trevor Horn, but her use of rhythms, weaving instrumental lines and subtly melancholy voices, creates unique atmospheres. The Answer To Your Question has hooks to spare and a hint of 60s girl-pop, while In The Hospital channels the sinister-sweet interface of The Velvet Underground’s more reflective moments. Playfulness propels Bright Side, where the keyboards’ ominous whirr is leavened by a knowingly reticent vocal. The cover of Young Marble Giants’ Salad Days (and that band, like the Velvets, are an unavoidable comparison point) is deliberately “folly and fun”. You may also think of the early Cherry Red ethos, as exemplified by Marine Girls, Monochrome Set or Felt.
Smith’s 1996 follow-up notion, on I So Liked Spring, was to set the words of 19th-century English poet Charlotte Mew to music. The absence of verses and choruses challenged her structural inventiveness. If this album is trickier to love at first, its moods –
You’ll wonder how she achieved such strange magic at home on a budget of zero
counter-intuitively chirpy as well as rainswept and autumnal – seep in with time. The title track is akin to Mazzy Star’s shade of dream pop.
Once Smith’s world has mesmerised you, with its basslines as peculiar as those on Bowie’s Lodger and percussion sometimes as vibrant as that on Paul Simon’s Rhythm Of The Saints, you’ll wonder how she achieved such strange magic at home on a budget of zero. Well, she didn’t have the internet to distract her. But also, just perhaps, ideas are more important than lavishness.