In the ’80s and ’90s, Linda Smith released solo music on cassette, making bedroom pop before the genre even existed. Today, the musician announced that she’s reissuing her albums Nothing Else Matters and I So Liked Spring, which have never been on streaming. To celebrate, she’s also sharing her cover of “Salad Days” by Young Marble Giants.

Read what Smith said about the cover:

My cover of “Salad Days” was originally intended for a Young Marble Giants tribute album that was to be released by a small label called Landspeed Records. For unknown reasons, it never happened and the label ceased operating. Other contributors included The Magnetic Fields, I’m told.

I first heard the album Colossal Youth by Young Marble Giants before I had attempted to make music myself. It was the late ‘70s when I rediscovered pop and rock music after years of listening mostly to classical music. The new music was fresh and challenged notions of how good one had to be to play an instrument in public. Among the many exciting records I bought almost weekly, Colossal Youth was singular; it simply did not sound like any other at that time (or since). Later, in the ‘90s, when the idea of the tribute album was proposed, I immediately thought of the song “Salad Days.” It seemed to sum up everything I felt about rediscovering music back in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, all in a mere 4 short lines.

Think of salad days
They were folly and fun
They were good
They were young

Hear the cover below.

TRACKLIST:

Nothing Else Matters
01 “To Answer Your Question”
02 “In No Uncertain Terms”
03 “I’ll Never See You Again”
04 “For Here Or To Go”
05 “In The Hospital”
06 “Bright Side”
07 “All Of The Blue”
08 “Only A Moment”
09 “I See Your Face”
10 “It Seems To Me”
11 “Little To Be Won”
12 “Nothing Else Matters”
13 “Salad Days” (Young Marble Giants cover)

I So Liked Spring
01 “Fin De Fete”
02 “Again”
03 “The Pedlar”
04 “Rooms”
05 “Afternoon Tea”
06 “I So Liked Spring”
07 “From A Window”
08 “Absence”
09 “A Quoi Bon Dire”
10 “In The Fields”
11 “May 1915”
12 “Not For That City”

The reissues of Nothing Else Matters and I So Liked Spring are out 3/1 on Captured Tracks.