Time & Tide: The writing process for this album started as soon as the first two Lost Penguinos albums had been released. The practical lessons learnt with the recording side of putting out two albums freed me up for the whole process. The songs for Time & Tide came in ones and twos during the second UK lockdown through the Covid 19 pandemic, usually on the once a day exercise excursion which was allowed. I’d walk around Coldhams Common or down to the river Cam in Cambridge and try out lyrics and melodies to pass the time – this experience is most obviously captured in ‘Magpie Fields’.
The arrangements are a bit more straightforward and mainstream than the previous two albums – and I ended up playing harmonica for the first time on Time & Tide. Throughout the recording process I played around with recording some of the tracks in a different style – as Manu Chao reuses his chord sequences and has melodies or rhythms running through albums as threads of continuity. I tried this and originally included these alternate versions on this album, but it ended creating a sprawling and confusing mess so I moved them onto a bonus EP ‘Tides Fall’.
The name here refers to the maritime phrase ‘Time and Tide waits for no man…’ – a dramatic way to say ‘get on with it!’.
I took the photo of a reservoir somewhere in the pyrenees years before, but I think the grey waves and the mountain capture something of the mood of the songs.
Musically there’s a lot more Springsteen and Gaslight Anthem influence in this collection of songs. Gone are the Oasis style slow tempo stomps half way through, and I think these songs have more of a consistent Lost Penguinos style about them, with a reworking of ‘When This Is Over’ under the name ‘Still Not Over’ to close the album – referring to the continued disruptions the world faced from Covid 19.
Find the lyrics and stories behind the songs below: