Linda Smith Shares 'Fin De Fete'

A pioneer of the home recording movement, Linda Smith released several collections of delicate, bewitching solo music on cassette in the 1980s and ‘90s. The 2021 release of Till Another Time: 1988-1996, Captured Tracks' compilation of Smith's work, has helped bestow rightful critical acclaim to the ahead-of-her-time artist.

Captured Tracks is diving deeper into Smith's catalog with plans to release two full-length companion albums, Nothing Else Matters and I So Liked Spring, made available for the first time on vinyl & streaming formats on March 1, 2024.

I So Liked Spring, recorded in 1996, followed 1995's Nothing Else Matters. Equally sophisticated in content as its predecessor, I So Liked Spring saw Smith experimenting with the unique challenge of putting another artist's words to music. She'd come across a biography of the English poet Charlotte Mew and found her wistful poetry rife for musical interpretation.

“[The] poems offered a new challenge in how to structure a song,” Smith explains. “There were no obvious verses and choruses, and this meant that I had to find another way to put together melody and rhythm based on the lines of the poems.” As a result, the songs on I So Liked Spring are delightfully unpredictable, full of upbeat melodies and spellbinding vocal harmonies.

Today, “Fin de Fete,” the irresistibly melodic opener of I So Liked Spring, has been made available as a single with a visualizer.

Linda Smith shares more about the song's creation:

“‘Fin de Fete' – When I was setting poems by Charlotte Mew to music back in 1996, I chose those that would offer me the opportunity to convey different moods using a variety of rhythms and tempos. While the words of ‘Fin de Fete' might seem on the page to be a somewhat wistful and even melancholic declaration of resignation, I wanted to give it a more upbeat, ‘who cares?' kind of treatment. Instead of a slow, minor chord arrangement, I decided upon three major chords and a jaunty rhythm to set the album in motion for the other songs (and poems) to follow. (I hope Charlotte Mew would have approved.)

photo by Patrick Lears