Katherine Priddy has announced the release of her third album, “These Frightening Machines“, which comes out on March 6th via Cooking Vinyl. The new record follows Priddy’s highly acclaimed debut “The Eternal Rocks Beneath” and sophomore LP “The Pendulum Swing”, which firmly established her as one of the most compelling artists on the contemporary British music scene. First single ‘Matches’, “a feminist anthem”, is out now – you can listen to it below, and in celebration of the new release, Priddy will take to the road in April and May next year for a lengthy UK headline tour. The albus is available to pre-order which gives priority access to gig tickets.
Speaking about the album, Priddy says: “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.” Produced by Rob Ellis (P J Harvey, Anna Calvi, Marianne Faithfull, Bat for Lashes) and recorded at The Glaucus House, Middle Farm Studios in rural Devon, the album was written over the course of a year as Priddy made the transition from her 20s to her 30s. “At its core,” she adds, “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.”
Possibly the most sonically varied of her career, the songs on the new album span a full spectrum of emotions from anger and despair to hope, longing and lust, from reclaiming the voices of women silenced by history, to expressing solidarity and love, to confronting illness, disconnection, the vulnerability and importance of relationships, and the general ache of growing older and not always wiser. They explore what it means to keep going when things fall apart, to hold onto connections in a world that sometimes divides, and to figure out where we fit into the machines and systems we find ourselves a part of. She comments more,
“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.”
Notable guests on the album include American singer/songwriter Torres, who duets on ‘Madeleine’, and Richard Walters, who duets on ‘I’m Always Willing‘. Revered, alt folk multi-instrumentalist Ben Christophers (Natasha Khan, Guy Garvey and many more) features on most of the album’s tracks.
Priddy said of the new track ‘Matches’ to be released from it: “This song is inspired by a rabbit hole I went down about the language we use when referencing the witch hunts and the witch trials, which still tends to focus on the burning of ‘witches’. Really, it wasn’t witches they were hunting down and accusing and killing, it was women (in the majority of cases), killed for all sorts of reasons and false accusations.”
“These Frightening Machines” Tracklisting:
1. Matches
2. Frightening Machines
3. Sirius
4. Hurricane
5. Madeleine
6. Atlas
7. A Matter of Time
8. Table Four
9. I’m Always Willing
10. Could This Be Enough?
Katharine Priddy 2026 UK Tour Dates:
Thu Apr 16 – Stroud The Sub Rooms
Fri Apr 17 – Brighton St George’s Church
Sat Apr 18 – Southampton Papillon
Sun Apr 19 – Cambridge Junction 2
Mon Apr 20 – Norwich Arts Centre
Wed Apr 22 – Bristol St George’s
Thu Apr 23 – London Union Chapel
Fri Apr 24 – Nottingham Metronome
Sat Apr 25 – Liverpool Tung Auditorium
Sun Apr 26 – Leeds Howard Assembly Room
Tues Apr 28 – Oxford Holywell Music Room
Wed Apr 29 – Manchester Stoller Hall
Thu Apr 30 – Edinburgh Pleasance
Fri May 1 – Gateshead Glasshouse Sage Two
Sat May 2 – Barnsley Birdwell Venue
Sun May 3 – Pocklington Arts Centre
Tue May 5 – Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre
Wed May 6 – Milton Keynes The Stables
Thu May 7 – Exeter Phoenix
Fri May 8 – Cardiff The Gate
Sat May 9 – Birmingham Town Hall
