Katherine Priddy: These Frightening Machines
(Via Cooking Vinyl)
CD | LP | DL | Stream
Out 6 March 2026
PRE-ORDER HERE
Katherine Priddy steps forward once again as one of the most exciting artists on the folk and contemporary music scene in recent years by releasing her third album, These Frightening Machines. It’s another collection of songs which not only showcases her penchant for lyrical depth and delicate, evocative vocals, but also stretches her sonic boundaries into new and previously unchartered waters with stunning results. Ian Corbridge absorbs every finely tuned note for Louder Than War.
Since Katherine Priddy’s debut album The Eternal Rocks Beneath was released in 2021, there is little doubt that the career of this Birmingham born folk singer has been on the ascent ever since. And her presence and impact has now extended far beyond just the UK folk scene thanks to extensive touring and huge exposure gained through notable appearances at the BBC Proms, Glastonbury and on Later With Jools Holland. Katherine’s second album The Pendulum Swing released in February 2024 garnered huge critical acclaim and really demonstrated the emotional maturity and depth of her songwriting born out of her long-held passion for poetry and storytelling.
Subsequent to this, Katherine has supported Suzanne Vega on her UK tour last Autumn, written and released two songs with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, and recorded a duet with Johnny Flynn as the title track for the 2025 feature film Four Letters of Love. And now, as we all desperately seek an end to the cool and very damp Winter period we have all been enduring and lurch forward into Spring, Katherine brings a true ray of sparkling sunshine into our lives through her new album These Frightening Machines.
For anyone expecting more of the same from this new collection of songs then you can think again, as Katherine takes another giant leap forward in her sonic adventure whilst never leaving her folk roots and thoughtful and reflective songwriting behind. The album was written over the course of a year with Katherine determined to let the songs find their own form by allowing her creative force to find its own voice. As Katherine herself explains, “If the first album was for building a foundation, and the second album was about reinforcing what I’d already begun, the third album felt to me like a chance to be bolder, push out and try something new.” Whilst the core of her band includes multi-instrumentalists Ben Christophers, Patrick Pearson and Rob Ellis, a number of other musicians further embellish the sound on various different songs.
The album opens with strange sonic noodlings and distant tribal and somewhat ominous sounding drum patterns as Matches takes us into the scary world of persecution. Not for the for the first time Katherine ventures into the world of mythology by taking us back to the time of the infamous witch trials in which religious extremism, paranoia and social tensions led to executions essentially born out of mass hysteria. The eerie soundtrack and Katherine’s sombre yet hauntingly beautiful vocals create this powerful feminist anthem, effectively reclaiming the voices of women who were misunderstood and silenced by history.
Frightening Machines is perhaps her most personal song on the album as it confronts a period when Katherine was in and out of hospital during a period of ill health when she faced the daunting prospect of so many machines surrounding her, something which will resonate with many of us who have faced similar plights. As she sings, “I’m having to learn that these frightening machines aren’t as tough as they seem”, it’s another gorgeously atmospheric poetic ballad which has the gift of transporting us right into her troubled mind as she navigated this challenging pathway in her life. Meanwhile the more uptempo jaunty rhythms of Sirius seem to confront loneliness with a reality check suggesting that all may not be as bad as it seems. Katherine focuses on the brightest star in the night sky with the recognition that “you’ve no idea just how much you brighten someone’s sky” in spite of it being millions of miles away and seemingly on its own.
Hurricane is a cautionary tale of dangerous love which dances with a brass fuelled bossa nova style beat and uplifting harmonic chorus lines all of which serves as Katherine’s response to a personal change made to her to produce something a little different. The inspiration for this song came from a time when she had retreated to a central point in a house during a visit to the USA amidst the threat of a passing tornado. And what does any self-confessed songwriter do in such a situation? – well of course they refocus with a more positive energy to write a love song entwined with the imagery of the challenging situation surrounding them at the time!
Madeleine is a stripped back acoustic folk love song which expresses love and solidarity for all the women in the music industry. Its sincerity is made all the more pointed by both the melancholy strings and the glorious harmonies as Katherine duets with American singer/songwriter Torres. Atlas shimmers with a real sense of vulnerability as it focuses on the importance of relationships and, with Katherine’s gentle finger-picked acoustic guitar overlaid with subtle yet moving orchestrations, it’s a song that inevitably tugs at the heart strings.
A Matter Of Time is a tender and emotionally resonant introspective view on life and the general ache of growing older but not necessarily wiser, with Katherine reflecting “A decade swings by like the sand that keeps slipping through hands that once cradled mine.” The subtle sonic textures of Patrick Pearson’s saxophone and Marley Ellis’s flute give the song such a timeless feel. Table Four seems to takes us on a beautifully evocative journey through life on the road, as if to suggest that there is often a yearning to be back home as the relentlessness of touring kicks in, only to find that the opposite is true once back home as Katherine admits to herself that “All too soon the scales start slipping, I never could resist an open door.” And in a similar vein, I’m Always Willing conveys a deep yearning for a loved one back home, with the duet with Richard Walters adding a deeper sense of poignancy as the broader instrumental palette rises and falls, perhaps reflecting her ever evolving emotional turmoil.
The album closes with the much starker yet totally engaging arrangement of Could This Be Enough? Katherine explains the inspiration behind this song as follows, “I wanted to end this album on a question mark as, whilst I’d have hoped to have it all figured out by the third album and my third decade, I’ve come to accept that perhaps part of being human is being a perpetual work in progress. Could this collection of songs be enough? If it strikes a match and casts a little light for anyone who has ever felt their body falter, their love waver, or time slip through their fingers, then that’s enough for me.”
As for the album as a whole, Katherine explains, “At its core, I think These Frightening Machines explores the ever shifting relationship I have with my sense of self as a woman, my body and my place in the world as a 30 year old artist – but I’d like to think that whilst the songs are born from personal experience, the feelings expressed are widely relatable.”
And there is no doubt in my mind that this strikingly delicate and melodious collection of songs sets a new benchmark for folk pop with Katherine’s hauntingly beautiful vocals, evocative lyricism, rich harmonies, and atmospheric arrangements all coming together to strike at your emotional core in a way that you may never have thought was possible. Definitely a strong contender for my albums of the year list come the end of 2026.
Katherine has been playing intimate in-store acoustic performances around the album release date and has the remaining ones in March as follows:
March
07 – Brighton, Resident
08 – London, Rough Trade East
09 – Southampton, Vinilo
10 – Oxford, Truck
11 – Liverpool, Rough Trade
12 – Cheltenham, Badlands
Katherine then goes out on an extensive headline UK tour with her band where we will all be able to hear her captivating voice and beautiful arrangements of songs from all her albums to date. The tour dates are as follows:
April
16 – Stroud, The Sub Rooms
17 – Brighton, St George’s Church
18 – Southampton, Papillon
19 – Cambridge, Junction 2
20 – Norwich, Arts Centre
22 – Bristol, St George’s
23 – London, Union Chapel
24 – Nottingham, Metronome
25 – Liverpool, Tung Auditorium
26 – Leeds, Howard Assembly Room
28 – Oxford, Holywell Music Room
29 – Manchester, Stoller Hall
30 – Edinburgh, Pleasance
May
01 – Gateshead, Glasshouse Sage Two
02 – Barnsley, Birdwell Venue
03 – Pocklington, Arts Centre
05 – Buxton, Pavilion Arts Centre
06 – Milton Keynes, The Stables
07 – Exeter, Phoenix
08 – Cardiff, The Gate
09 – Birmingham, Town Hall
You can buy tickets for all live shows here.
You can pre-order the album here.
You can find Katherine Priddy on Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, Bandcamp and her website.
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All words by Ian Corbridge. You can find more of his writing at his author profile here.
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