Following the release of her critically acclaimed third album White Dots (Sib Records, 2019) – hailed as “exquisite,” “glorious” and “addictive” (* * * * MOJO ) – and ahead of her fourth due for release 2026 – the Dublin-born, Norfolk-based artist-producer, author, and academic Paula Wolfe re-worked and re-released her back-catalogue in 2024.
With the reworked EP earning a longlist nomination for Self-Producing Artist of The Year for the Music Producer’s Guild (MPG) Awards 2025 and the reworked debut album declared ‘lush’ ‘cinematic’ and ‘blissful’ (* * * * MOJO), the project saw Wolfe received as fresh and relevant as ever.
The Rework
Having garnered widespread acclaim throughout her career for “hitting the mark on both sides of the desk” (FATEA Magazine), Paula Wolfe belongs to the generation of pioneering female artists who embraced the arrival of digital recording software in the late 1990s to self-produce their own work. Her last project saw Wolfe reworking her first two releases: her debut EP Find (Sib Records 2000) and debut album Staring (Sib Records 2003).
The Reception
The first phase of the triple release, the EP Find (Sib Records 26 July 2024) was described as ‘extraordinary’ ‘psychedelic’ ‘poetic’ and ‘beautiful’ (IndustryMe) and earned Wolfe a longlisted nomination as Self-Producing Artist of The Year for the Music Producers Guild (MPG) Awards 2025 for the track ‘Find’.
The second release, the album Staring (Sib Records 4 October 2024) earned Wolfe her third consecutive four-star rating from MOJO, long supporters her work from the start of her self-production career,
“Now an assured arranger and producer, Wolfe has used strings, woodwind and intuitive beats to transform these songs into cinematic indie-pop [.]Most moving are her songs about love – the lush, giddy harmonies of ‘May I’, for instance [] and the blissful haze of ‘Wind’, lingering long after the final note.” (* * * * MOJO)
Wolfe was invited to write a feature for Songwriting Magazine about the whole reworking project and also published an academic paper about the very creative processes that have come to define her work as a self-producing singer-songwriter. In addition, her work was highlighted in a prominent feature by the Music Producers Guild .
The third release was the remastered reissue of her critically acclaimed second album Lemon (Sib Records 2009). Described as ‘a mood shifting, musically inventive piece of work’ and [T]he album that finally puts Wolfe on the map’ (* * * * MOJO) , it marked her out as ‘a major talent’ (MusicOMH) and ‘a splendid songwriter’ (* * * UNCUT) who writes ‘exceptional’ lyrics delivered with a ‘gorgeous’ voice. (* * * Maverick) It also earned her personal praise from the Head of Music at BBC Radio 2 and 6Music (Jeff Smith) and the type of accolade from one critic who declared the album, ‘A flawless exercise in modern art, that boasts enough melody to make this as warm and approachable as possible, whilst being unafraid to extend an olive branch to the musos; stunning’. (New-noise.net)
So Why the Rework and Why the Reissue?
Wolfe’s third album White Dots (Sib Records 2019) saw ‘The multi-hyphenate in excellent form’ (Folking.com). She was proclaimed ‘a MOJO artist’ with a ‘collection of songs that combine glorious Brill Building-style chant, jazz drums and lustrous strings’ (* * * * MOJO). It saw critics compare her to many of our greats. She was described as ‘a latter-day Carole King’ (MOJO) and ‘part Kirsty MacColl’ (Velvet Sheep) whilst for others her songs recalled ‘the eloquence of Ray Davies and Paul Weller in their pomp’ married with ‘the spirit of Lily Allen and Laura Marling’ (Travellers Tunes).
The album’s single, ‘Georgia Blue’, was positioned as ‘ “That’s Entertainment” for the woke generation’ (Travellers Tunes) and all were in agreement that Wolfe is ‘super-smart and keenly observant’ having presented a new array of characters on White Dots with ‘unerring charm’ (Velvet Sheep). They included a cross-dressing train driver, a solitary caravan dweller in southern France, an ageing bachelor looking for late love online and Mexico City’s street children working its nocturnal streets while their compatriots busked on the Paris Metro on the other side of the world. As one critic noted, ‘Layered with such vivid characters and enriching landscapes, Wolfe has provided an album that keeps on giving.’ (Travellers Tunes)
So again, Why the Rework and Why the Reissue?
Well, quite simply, Wolfe wanted her full catalogue digitally released before she pushed ahead with the fourth album.
However, this proved more convoluted than expected as Wolfe couldn’t locate the original files for the first two releases. Attempts to remaster from the CDs were unsuccessful, so she started to re-record all the songs, which then morphed into a complete re-working.
Compellingly Relevant
Though harking from a different era, the re-working felt very of the moment in 2024. What is striking also is that all these songs, based on events from a particular time in a particular place – from those that speak ‘so beautifully’ (IndustryMe) of the troubled loves of a younger self, such as ‘Trying’ on FIND, to those songs on STARING that give a voice to characters who find themselves on the edges of society – still feel compellingly relevant today.
Take the title track of Staring. It’s a biting critique of the entitled sharp-elbows of the privileged with their ‘narrow-eyed determined stride past those who might be better than you’. It also sets the scene for her depiction of the everyday lives of young people, living out their marginalisation on the other side of the track, drawing on her time working as a singer-songwriter in Manchester and her experiences from the-then day job of teaching English in some of the most deprived areas of the North-West in the 1990s and early 2000s, a period of hardship for many.
For example, ‘Joy ’ sees a disaffected joyrider trying to goad his friend into joining him on a spree, ‘what d’you mean you want something better; this is it for lads like you and me’. ‘Skinny’ presents a pale young girl ‘hanging round on the corner’, bored with her gossiping friends, living an inward life, avoiding the scary local gang and being hungry. ‘Leanne’ charts the challenges of a school day for a troubled little girl who ‘hides her head in her jumper when she’s sad’ and ‘Oldham Street’ witnesses the streets of late 1990s Manchester, turn dark and wild at chucking out time.
The Production
As dark as some of these stories are, Wolfe’s production, on the other hand is upbeat with the songs benefiting from her new string, brass and woodwind arrangements performed by the classical and jazz musicians she recorded in her home studio, the Norfolk rural retreat where she produces and records all her work.
The musicians for this project included her long-time collaborators, Jim O’Toole on violin and viola, Philip Trzebiatowski on Cello and Cath Evans on Drums. Some new musicians also joined her. These included Anne Bryant on Flute, Rachel Cannon on Clarinet, Simon Jarrett on Soprano Sax and Dave Land on Trumpet and Flugelhorn.
Wolfe provided all the guitars, the bass (which she taught herself to play as part of the project), the synths and beats and, of course, her signature vocals. She also mixed the entire project with the mastering by Eric James.
A New Creative Phase
So, with the rework and the remaster now behind her and the full catalogue safely on the digital shelf, Wolfe has finally entered a new creative phase, with the fourth album well underway – as well as a few other projects that include a volume of poetry, a new live show and a new book.
The Side Hustle
It’s worth noting that following those early recordings, Wolfe has developed a significant side hustle as a leading academic with an international profile in music production, gender and creativity. Her award nominated book Women in the Studio (Routledge 2020), was published alongside the release of the third album and, since its publication, has become embedded in the curriculum in degree programmes worldwide, supported by guest lectures and talks at over 40 universities within the UK, Europe, Canada and the US.
Unsurprisingly, both the reworking project and her work on the new album has also seen Wolfe develop a new area of practice-based research with her latest publication, along with a conference paper presented at the IASPM 23rd International Conference at Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris, in July 2025, forming the blueprint of her new book on self-production. It is a creative practice, that she has long argued is its own art form, distinct within music production and one that remains critical for the creative empowerment it continues to offer those artists marginalised by the mainstream because of their gender, their colour, their class or their age.
A singular artist and academic, Paula Wolfe continues to forge her own path, shaping the discourse that follows.