On the cover of her eponymous debut album, the Bolton-raised Toria Wooff reclines on a church pew located in Stanley Palace, a 16th-century mansion in her adopted city of Chester. In her hand, a Celtic Cross. Such imagery implies that what will be heard on the grooves within the sleeve might cleave to forms of gothic-inclined British folk. This, though, is not the case.
It’s clear from the album’s second track that Wooff is aware of dark Texas country singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt. “Lefty's Motel Room” is an open nod to his totemic composition "Pancho and Lefty.” As Wooff’s song picks up steam, pedal steel, organ lines, violin and the swelling melody firmly place this as Americana. Taken overall, the album’s 11 songs settle in as a recasting of Mazzy Star and Van Zandt were they drawing from a lyrical outlook steeped in British ghost stories. The chilly atmosphere is amplified by swirling cello, viola and violin accompaniment.
The album is produced by James Wyatt: not the producer of the same name who has worked with George Ezra, Ellie Goulding, Lianne La Havas and Pixie Lott. The orchestral arrangements are by Danny Miller: not the Mute Records Daniel Miller but the leader of The Danny Miller Big Band. He has also worked extensively with musicals.
While this is an assured album, the niggle is that Wooff’s songs are so strong they could flourish equally well without the overtly – deliberate – country setting which has been crafted here. It feels as if she is performing to the – albeit lovely – arrangements, rather than the arrangements supporting her, her songs and her voice. Hopefully, when she plays live with her band Wooff will eschew these stylistic templates; templates which come across as constrictions.
