Sold out// Toria Woof at Moskus

Fantastic artist, you just have to check it out!

Egon Holstad is absolutely right here:

That one of last year's best albums was made by a woman still in her twenties (she turns 30 in September), who is, to top it all, from England, of all "countries", is not exactly something I would put money on. That the tip would come from Bodø, of all places, makes the combination of strange elements border on overwhelming, but still absolutely top-notch, in every way.

If someone had asked me to guess, I would have put a lot of money on her being Canadian or American, because there is very little here that sends associations to her own geographical origins, even though in recent years there has started to be a good crop of excellent folk/country from the UK.

To take the most important thing first, because the most striking thing here, besides where both she and the tip about her come from, is the sky-high level of her songs. She must have simply heard a lot from the American songbook. It's not accurate at all anyway. The important thing is that these songs reach as many people as possible.

"The Flood" was one of the very best songs released in all of 2025. It's so beautiful, magnificent, tastefully elegant, and enormous that it's completely swoon-worthy.

It starts with a very gentle and absolutely beautiful pedal steel (by Scott Poley, who is unknown to me), before the song itself slowly but surely builds up and up and keeps you soaring in a way that only such epic songs can, and where you hope you never land. "Author Song" has something Springsteen-esque and Nabraska-esque about it, only enhanced with vague, enchanting lap steel. You think that's how the album would sound, if Gillian Welch and David Rawlings performed it, or Lucinda Williams in 1988.

"The Waltz of Winter Hey" sounds like the brilliant sequel to Mirel Wagner that never came.

The song "Song for A" is even reminiscent of Townes Van Zandt's "Tecumseh Valley". "A Song For" was the title of one of the man's very best songs, so I've decided that this is a kind of subtle greeting and homage from her to Townes. There is a lot of Townes on this album. Then you are on the right track in most things, minus the lifestyle. She also sings absolutely fantastically, but manages to hold back, where others would go to great lengths to constantly show how incredibly good they are at singing. Instead, she just lets the words and notes weave together reliably, as if she has been doing this for twice as long as she has been alive.

"Mountains" even makes me think of our own Malin Pettersen, while newer names like Ken Pomeroy and Mirel Wagner also come to mind, while oldies like Cohen and Dylan are inevitable.

So there is hope for, not only Bodø and England, but also for the new generations of songwriters. As well as the undersigned, a little over a year after the album came out. But better late than never, etc.