After she left Universal Classics and Jazz to pursue a less commercial and more personal musical direction,[4][5][6] Herbert collaborated with Polar Bear's Seb Rochford in a production role for this album.

[8] In a five-starred review for The Observer, Stuart Nicholson said that on Between Me and the Wardrobe Herbert "lets the lyrics do the work for her.

[2] Colin Buttimer, writing for BBC Music, said: "stories are very much to the fore, in fact many of these songs are compacted narrative jewels...

The music is oak-like, rich and weathered... Seb Rochford, best known as the strikingly hirsute drummer for Polar Bear, Fulborn Taversham and Acoustic Ladyland, is responsible for a production that’s stripped-down, but full of unexpected and highly rewarding details".

Jazzers might be foxed by Blue Note's endorsement of this low-key, folk-inflected and very personal vision, but... the lyrics gleam with individuality... and though the tunes could have used a few more twists and turns, it confirms that Herbert is light years from the whisper-in-your-ear Krall clone some dismissed her as".