With her sensitive, thoughtful lyrics, Katherine Priddy takes us on a journey back home in this gently heartfelt and captivating song. Over warm and tuneful guitar, Priddy’s delicate voice follows a beautiful melody, showing her range and control. Musically, ‘First House on the Left’ floats and flows in mesmerising currents, immediately likeable but offering more with each listen.
Priddy says of the song and the wider themes on her forthcoming album: “Despite its soft and dreamy sound, this song provides the cornerstone around which the album and its themes orbit. It’s inspired by the little old house where I grew up and all the memories captured within those four walls – both for me and for all the other inhabitants who’ve lived there over the centuries. It might just be another terraced cottage to passersby, but to those who’ve called it home, it’s everything. The album title ‘The Pendulum Swing’ is taken from a line in this song and describes the urge to leave and the even stronger urge to return – something I’ve felt a lot in recent few years as I’ve tried to carve out a corner for myself elsewhere, but always found myself wandering back, craving the comfort and nostalgia of the past. It also sums up this second album as a whole quite nicely – my songs have matured since my debut, seeing as most of those were written in my childhood, but despite moving forward and feeling the need to do something different with this second release, I still can’t help but return to those fundamental, unchanging things at the root of it all: home, family, love. Overall, I wanted this song and the album to feel lived in, and this is captured in part by the ghostly atmospheres, mechanical clockwork sounds, creaking floorboards, indistinct whispers and old tape recordings of my family that are littered throughout. I want to invite the listener to come in, sit down and inhabit the album for a little while, and this song is right at the heart of that.” This attention to detail and sophisticated approach is evident in both the video, which reinforces the song’s themes effectively, and in Priddy’s songwriting.
This is the title track from Priddy’s forthcoming second album, which is due for release on 16th February 2024. The follow-up to 2021’s acclaimed ‘The Eternal Rocks Beneath’ promises to be just as absorbing as Priddy’s debut. Next May, Priddy will be on the road, showcasing songs from the new album – details of the tour and tickets can be found here. In the meantime, lose yourself in this.
