Reese O’Neill has released ‘Machine’, introducing an electronic folk track that feels both intimate and unsettling in equal measure. The Liverpool-based singer-songwriter continues to build a world rooted in queer identity, emotional vulnerability and the sacredness of intimacy, using genre-blurring production to give those ideas a striking new form.
Blending the confessional pull of folk with the experimental textures of art pop, Reese’s music sits in a space where delicate acoustics and atmospheric production are allowed to collide. ‘Machine’ appears to deepen that balance, pairing soothing autotuned vocals with layered harmonies that blur into synth-like tones, while glitchy production gives the song a restless, expansive edge.
An intimate song with a fractured core
At the centre of the single is the line “I’m a machine with a broken command”, a lyric drawn from Reese’s experience of living with Functional Neurological Disorder, a condition that affects how the brain receives and sends information to the rest of the body. That personal starting point gives the track its emotional weight, but ‘Machine’ reaches beyond autobiography too, speaking to anyone who has felt disconnected from their own mind or caught in a state of inner turbulence.
That tension between tenderness and disruption is what makes the single so compelling on paper. Reese O’Neill is currently working towards a debut EP, and ‘Machine’ feels like a strong indication of the world taking shape around it: emotionally raw, sonically expansive and unafraid to let limerence, worship and digital isolation sit side by side. With influences that stretch from Leonard Cohen and Laurie Anderson to more contemporary left-of-centre pop voices, her songwriting seems interested not just in confession, but in what happens when confession starts to distort.
Review
What stands out most about ‘Machine’ is the clarity of its emotional premise. Even before hearing it, the combination of autotuned softness, layered harmonies and glitchy production suggests a song that treats vulnerability as something unstable rather than neat or resolved. That feels well matched to the subject matter, giving the single the potential to be affecting without ever becoming sentimental.
Just as importantly, Reese O’Neill appears to be carving out a space that feels genuinely her own. There are reference points in the mix of folk intimacy and art-pop experimentation, but the framing around ‘Machine’ suggests an artist using those influences to sharpen a distinct voice rather than disappear into them. If this single is a sign of what her debut EP will hold, it points towards a project with real emotional depth and atmosphere.
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