Katherine Priddy – Matches: Single Review

By John Barlass on 15th October 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

First foretaste of These Frightening Machines, the forthcoming third album from wavemaker Katherine Priddy. Matches will send shivers down many spines and it contains a stark warning for those with persecution on their minds…

Release Date: 10th October 2025

Label: Cooking Vinyl

Format: Digital

12 MONTHS IN THE MAKING

These Frightening Machines, the forthcoming third album from Katherine Priddy, has been in gestation for quite some time. Over twelve months, in fact – a period during which Katherine made the sometimes awkward transition from being a ‘dismissible’ twenty-something to a ‘now ya’d better take me seriously’ thirty-something. Speaking of the album, Katherine says: “At its core, I think that These Frightening Machines explores the ever-stunning relationship I have with my sense of self as a woman, my body and my place in the world as a thirty-year-old artist – but I’d like to think that the songs are born from personal experience. The feelings expressed are widely relatable.”

Sounds interesting, and I’m sure that we’ll be learning quite a lot more about those songs before the album makes its appearance in March of next year.

NOTABLE HEADS HAVE BEEN TURNED

But… we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves. New single, Matches, is our first taster of the delights to come and it’s quite a product. Scary and confident, it’s a powerful feminist anthem that women – and men – everywhere would be wise to heed.

Katherine Priddy has been generating some pretty impressive waves since her debut album, Wolf, appeared back in 2018. Some notable heads, including the one that sits atop the shoulders of one Richard Thompson, OBE, have been turned by Katherine’s well-thought songs, her haunting vocals and her distinctive finger-picking guitar style and her travelogue includes appearances at Green Man and Cambridge Folk festivals and performances in Australia and the USA. And, when she hits the road once again in the spring of 2026 to promote These Frightening Machines, you can bet your overcoat that her solid reputation will be strengthened even more.

MATCHES

An ominous drum figure and discrete instrumentation provide the backing for Matches. Katherine’s vocals are soft, sweet and intimate. They’re also haunting and not a little unsettling – and her words are utterly without compromise. “They weren’t burning witches – it was women on those fires,” she sings, as she recalls the savage treatment once – and still – meted out to women with the audacity to possess greater intelligence, perception and insight than their male counterparts. But, she leaves us with a stark warning: “Don’t they know that WE have matches, too…”

As an opening salvo, it couldn’t be more promising. Matches is a fine precursor to the treats yet to come. These Frightening Machines is an enticing prospect.

Find out for yourself – watch the official video to Matches below: