The Northern Pikes - Time to Time

Back in January I wrote about The Northern Pikes' excellent album Forest of Love. It was an album I bought because I thought it might be interesting (I also found it cheap which was a plus), and I was intrigued by Kevin Kane's inclusion in the line-up. I suppose if I were a proper fan I wouldn't have been so surprised at how good it was. Time to Time came out in 2023 and featured the same lineup: Jay Semko, Bryan Potvin, Don Schmid, and Kevin Kane.

I went to the band's site, looked through the merch store, and saw that their latest album Time to Time was available as an autographed limited edition. In one of those "Go on, take my money" moments, I sent a message through the site and, in short order, found myself trading notes with Don Schmid. Within literally a few days, a package arrived at my door with the record. Turns out Don lives practically down the road from me, which kind of cracked me up.

Time to Time had been waiting to be played for a few months. To be fair, it's not like I wasn't doing some catching up on the band's back catalogue and ending up with a couple more of their CDs (yes, they were good).

The band has a surprisingly deep catalogue, so it was an interesting (odd, okay, it was odd) choice to essentially rerecord much of Snow in June. Heck, the first four songs are even in the same order. When I first scanned the track list and noticed songs like "Things I Do for Money" and "Hopes Go Astray" weren't there, I figured something was up.

Reading up on things, I found out Time to Time was originally conceived as a sort of 30th Anniversary companion to Snow in June back in 2020. Ah, 2020, the hold-my-beer year that stretched into practically half a decade ...

Suddenly, the song choices made a lot more sense.

The pithy idiot in me thought, "Oh look, The Pikes are doing an unplugged record. HA HA HA." Considering the whole unplugged fad was over thirty years ago, the lads are a tad behind the ball jumping on the bandwagon. Then again, a-ha only dropped their acoustic collection back in 2017, and that was a better-late-than-never anthology. Maybe The Pikes wanted to be fashionably late and make an entrance. Or, more likely, it was a labour of love and cost them more to make than they've recouped so far ... considering the record may (or may not) have been limited to 300 physical copies (that's what it says on Discogs), which I find hard to believe, especially if the band was working from a FACTOR grant. Then again, what do I know about the inner workings of this stuff? I could fit it into a champagne cork.

Here we are a few years later and I was able to secure a copy. At the moment, it's still available on their site (go buy a copy). I couldn't believe there were still copies available ... not that I was complaining, because I wanted one. I wonder if Don is taking questions? I should ask him about it, but hopefully not sound like a dick while doing so.

Let's just assume Time to Time is a love letter from the band to its fans.

What a love letter.

The record comes in a good looking gatefold, and the record is matched to the aesthetics. I would have liked to have more credits and lyrics. I'm a fan of seeing who sang what. I know real fans know, but it's like when Styx would let the listener know if it was Tommy or JY who took a lead on a song. You didn't need to know, but it was fun knowing. Most people could not have cared less, but there was always someone who appreciated the little details. 

It's possible you may be thinking, "What if you're not a hard-core fan?" Fair. I never really would have considered myself much of a fan either. I knew a bunch of the band's songs, but that was about it. Even if you've never heard any of the songs from Snow in June, I can confidently say Time to Time is excellent. It doesn't matter whether you're steeped in the band's history or relatively new to their music.

I did a few A/B comparisons (I was curious) between tracks here and the original versions, and the arrangements are faithful to the core of the songs, but the band also has the benefit of over three decades of experience, and it shows. The songs reveal hidden depths that only time can uncover.

Like I said, the arrangements are nicely scaled back while maintaining the essence of the songs. "She Ain't Pretty" (still my least favourite song by The Pikes) is probably the closest to the original, which I can understand. Heck, even The Police found out there's only so far you can go with a new arrangement before you start splitting your fan base. Me, I sort of liked their new version of "Don't Stand So Close," and was sorry they never did more.

I do have some favourites here, starting with the atmospheric opening of "Dream Away." My other favourites were "Kiss Me You Fool," which was dripping with emotion, and "Girl With a Problem." "Green Fields," with the mandolin and fiddle, could be criticized (if you're a dick) as generic throwaway fare, but I found it mesmerizing. The songs felt new, although the added benefit of familiarity probably didn't hurt.

However, the centrepiece is "Snow in June," a song I was not familiar with, and here it is an absolute scorcher. This may be an unplugged acoustic album, but man oh man, that didn't mean there were no guitars. The coda section is killer.

The three new songs that close out the second side are worth the price of admission, and I'd pay it again (trust me, it wasn't cheap, but I am not complaining). This is where the Pikes of Wrath excel ... okay, come on, at some point I had to work that in. I resisted the last time.

They mesh with the preceding songs, but there's also something fresh that elevates them from the rest of the album. Oddly, considering the advantage familiarity usually has in making a first impression, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I gravitated toward the new material.

"Snow in June" is a perfect segue into the first of the new songs, "Only a Lover's Dream," starts with Jay singing in his Darth Vader low register, which works better than it sounds when I write it like that. The groove and swelling guitars are a perfect counterpoint as the tremolo-saturated notes ring out.

"The Things You Saw in Me" musically isn't cutting a new path in the grass, but it borders on infectious, and I could imagine my long-suffering wife trying to get my cumbersome frame to two-step to the song. If you listen to it and close your eyes, you'll be transported to a barn where the band is playing atop bales of hay and kerosene lamps hang from the beams.

"Taken" closes out the album, and it's a gorgeous song and a fitting end to a really cohesive album.

The musicianship here is top shelf without being flashy. The guys are servicing the songs, and while they were under the hood, they gave them a good tune-up. I'm really glad they added Donald MacLennan on fiddle. My goodness, this guy is the special seasoning on many of the tracks. His work is so prominent I'm a little surprised his name didn't appear in a larger font under the band credits. The other outside guy was Glenn Patscha, who contributed keys on the album.

From Time to Time I'll find an album like this, and today was that day ... fine, I'll see myself out.