The double album marks ten years since Wolf's debut studio album,
Lycanthropy and contains re-recorded, acoustic versions of select songs from the previous ten years. The first disc,
Sundark, features "more solitary darker material" and "songs that were written in loneliness and not really thinking about other people", while the second disc,
Riverlight, includes "songs of hope and relationship" and "isolation and solitude on one and togetherness".
Buffy Sainte-Marie co-wrote the new version of "Hard Times" after they met in
Barcelona during the recording session. The album was recorded at
Peter Gabriel's
Real World Studios. Gabriel also lent his
Bösendorfer grand piano,
Bodhrán and
Hammered dulcimer to Wolf. The title of the album is taken from the song "London", from
Lycanthropy, which begins "Sun dark on darker streets, it's violent times for weary feet..." and ends with "Forget me, I wash myself in your grey river light". ==Album artwork==