Between the Times and the Tides is the ninth studio album by the American alternative rock musician Lee Ranaldo, released on March 20, 2012 on Matador Records. His first release on Matador Records and since Sonic Youth's indefinite hiatus, the album features a more straightforward songwriting approach to his prior material and includes guest musicians such as Nels Cline, John Medeski and Leah Singer. The album was originally intended to be a minimalist acoustic album but its sound was developed by Ranaldo during its recording at Echo Canyon West in Hoboken, New Jersey during a seven-month period in early 2011.
Between the Times and the Tides sound was influenced by Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Leonard Cohen, as well as contemporary artists such as Cat Power. The title of the album comes from a lyric in the song "Xtina as I Knew Her." Upon its release, Between the Times and the Tides received positive critical acclaim and charted in four countries, including Belgium, France, Germany and the United States. Its two singles—"Off the Wall" and "Shouts"—were moderate critical successes but failed to chart. The album's release was followed by two tours of North America and Oceania from April to October 2012, which included appearances at various music festivals, including All Tomorrow's Parties I'll Be Your Mirror and the Melbourne International Arts Festival.
Background
During his time as the lead guitarist of Sonic Youth, Lee Ranaldo had considered recording a "simple, acoustic album" of original songs "with just an acoustic guitar and a microphone." After the release of Maelstrom from Drift—a collection of group improvisations, live recordings and home studio sessions—in 2008, Ranaldo's plans developed further. Following Sonic Youth's indefinite hiatus, he began arranging the material with contributors such as Nels Cline, John Medeski, and Bob Bert. All three musicians, except Bert, had recorded renditions of Bob Dylan songs for the soundtrack to his 2007 biopic, I'm Not There, as The Million Dollar Bashers. Most of the material he began arranging had been written between June and August 2010 when the songs "just kept flowing out behind that one ["Lost"]."
Recording
Ranaldo originally recorded acoustic demos for Between the Times and the Tides on his iPhone. He later rerecorded them in-studio with Steve Shelley, the drummer of Sonic Youth. According to Ranaldo, the subsequent demo recording led to the development of the songs, which then became "guitar-and-bass-and-drums demos." He referred to the recording process of the album as "gradual but really organic." When he began recording the album in January 2011 at Echo Canyon West in Hoboken, New Jersey, Ranaldo "started laying them down in a little bit more hi–fi fashion", using studio equipment and effects pedals.
Ranaldo used his signature Fender Jazzmaster guitar during the recording sessions of Between the Times and the Tides and a custom-built electric guitar by Jarrell Guitars. Several Martin and Gibson acoustic guitars were used, including a Martin D-35, Martin 00018, Gibson J-50 and Gibson J-45. Various equipment—such as Fender Prosonic and Fender Super Reverb amplifiers, Ibanez Analog Delay, Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive, BJF Electronics' Honey Bee and DOD Two Second Digital Delay effects pedals—was used during the recording sessions to contribute to the album's sound.
Composition
Between the Times and the Tides features material composed solely by Ranaldo. The album features a more "song-led approach" to his previous material, which is largely considered noise rock. According to Ranaldo, he did not "deliberately" suppress noise composition but with earlier acoustic versions of the songs he would "often kind of 'Sonic' them up." The album's overall sound has been described as "a set of catchy, poppy tunes that establish a new aspect in [Ranaldo's] career." Ranaldo further explained that "it wasn't a conscious choice to write pop songs, they just sprung out of the guitars."
Certain musicians influenced Ranaldo's songwriting including Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen and Cat Power, which he referred to as "a kind of older generation of songwriting." He also mentioned Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde (1966) as a particular influence. Ranaldo stated that "these songs were allowed to breathe because they weren't sent through the fan machine. When Sonic Youth writes music, we write everything in a very communal way. It doesn't matter who brought something in initially, it all gets transformed by the band. In this case, I was making decisions, and I wanted them to have a certain kind of simplicity. They ended up more personal for that reason."