Poison Years is a compilation album by Bob Mould, who had been the guitarist and co-vocalist of the influential American rock band Hüsker Dü. It is essentially a condensed version of Mould's first two solo albums on Virgin Records, Workbook (1989) and Black Sheets of Rain (1990), and was released in mid-1994 after Mould had achieved considerable success with his new band Sugar. It contains 6 (out of 11) studio tracks from Black Sheets and 5 (out of 11) tracks from Workbook, of which 3 are previously unreleased live versions. In addition, the album contains a studio outtake from the Workbook period, "All Those People Know", a live version of another non-album track, "If You're True", and a live cover version of "Shoot Out The Lights" from the eponymous 1982 album by Richard and Linda Thomps