Following a triumphant ‘CMAT summer’ of big singles and even bigger live shows – the pinnacle being her festival-stealing appearance at Glastonbury – CMAT has released her third album, Euro-Country.
After five-plus years of toil, the stars finally seem to be aligning for the Co Meath musical maverick born Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, with folks across the water and beyond finally paying attention to her country-informed alternative pop stylings.
Recorded in New York and co-produced with CMAT’s long-time collaborator Oli Deakin, Euro-Country is billed as “an aural tight-rope walk” that tackles “a number of big themes including personal reflections on economics, identity and grief”.
As ever, the songs on Euro-Country are fuelled by heartache, empathy and see-sawing self-doubt/belief, underpinned by an energising defiance rooted in this gifted, queer, working-class outsider’s singular POV.
Could this be third time lucky for CMAT in terms of translating album chart-topping success at home into a similarly high-profile presence in the UK?
“Euro-Country is, I think, the best thing I have ever made,” she proclaims of an album which finds her clawing through the rubble of post-Celtic Tiger Ireland and the highs/lows of her own rise to fame for inspiration.
“I felt halfway through recording it was the most important record I’ve made for myself, mainly because it was making me go crazy.”
Was it worth it? Readers, read on…
Euro-Country finds CMAT clawing through the rubble of post-Celtic Tiger Ireland and the highs/lows of her own rise to fame for inspiration.
1. Billy Byrne from Ballybrack, The Leader of The Pigeon Convoy
Research suggests Billy was a real life, recently deceased local ‘character’ in this titular seaside town, known for his love of animals.
Perhaps that’s a snippet of a phonecall by the late Billy himself we can hear beneath the sound of crashing waves and bird squawks on this atmospheric album intro, which merges seamlessly into the album’s title track.
2. Euro-Country
On this pedal-steel and percussion-heavy tune, CMAT wrestles with her evolving relationship with homeland she left to chase her musical dreams.
Namechecking both Cú Chulainn and early 2000s Irish tabloid ‘favourite’ Kerry Katona in the same line, this rather wistful pop ode opens with CMAT singing in grammatically wonky Irish.
Later, she serves up the chilling lines “All the big boys, all the Berties, all the envelopes, yeah, they hurt me / I was 12 when the dads started killing themselves all around me.”
“Euro-Country means three things to me: It’s the kind of country music I make, the fact that Ireland is a European country run by the Euro, and that capitalism is one of the worst things to ever happen to us,” she explains.
“I was fluent [in Irish] until I was 12 and now I have a whole other language that I just don’t use,” she told Rolling Stone.
“On this album, I’m reckoning with my identity, and speaking to the experience of being embarrassed by your fractured relationship with your own country, so Irish seemed like the best way to do that.”
3. When a Good Man Cries
Great opening line: “I waited for love with a cricket bat.”
This heartbroken-yet defiant country-pop ballad about relationship woes might be the most ‘country’ thing CMAT has done since her breakthrough tune I Wanna Be a Cowboy Baby.
When a Good Man Cries really shows off her spine-tingling vocals, especially when it takes off towards the end.
A live favourite in waiting, methinks.
4. The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station
On the subject of live favourites, how class is this song?
Another great vocal workout for the CMAT lungs, it’s a genius collision between Krautrock and country pop infused with lyrics detailing verge-of-panic, stream of self-consciousness existential rumination – all inspired by a hatred of celebrity chef-endorsed sausage rolls.
“The whole point of the song is [that] actually my annoyance and intolerance and hatred of other people serves absolutely no purpose in my life and is a really bad instinct that I have,” explains CMAT.
“So it’s actually a love song for Jamie Oliver, if you think about it.”
The big build at the end is pure mosh-pit fodder.
5. Tree Six Foive
“There’s only three-six-five days a year and I don’t want you here if I can help it.”
This stomping piano-powered ode to a deadbeat ex is a cathartic singalong hoe-down for those moving on from unhealthy relationships.
6. Take a Sexy Picture of Me
A rousing musical musing on the male gaze, and possibly CMAT’s most anthemic tune ever.
She explains: “With the internet, every woman is now in the public eye.
“Take a Sexy Picture of Me is me calling out anyone who criticised my weight or how I looked – and it’s one of the best songs I’ve ever made.”
Click on the comments below any CMAT YouTube video for more on this misogynistic inspiration.
7. Ready
A palate cleansing mid-album moment of bittersweet yet affirmative soul-pop, Ready could be about moving on from heartbreak and opening up to new love – or, perhaps, jettisoning any nagging self-doubts to fully embrace pop star destiny.
8. Iceberg
A stripped-back, emotionally charged ode to an old, formerly fierce friend, Iceberg is one of the album’s quieter moments and also a real highlight.
“Where’d you go crazy girl boss? / Where’d you go, are you still lost?”
Love the Titanic references in this one.
9. Coronation St
Another late-album highlight, this acoustic guitar-based ballad details an unhappy period of CMAT’s life when she was working as an ‘accommodation manager’ in Manchester.
One of the apartments in her charge overlooked the back of the Coronation St set, offering bird’s-eye insight into how most of ‘the Street’ is merely a painted-up, wooden visage.
“I’m just a barmaid with no life who lives on Coronation Street / I’m 23 and everyone is having fun except for me”, she laments.
What a difference five years makes, eh?
10. Lord, Let That Tesla Crash
CMAT goes a wee bit Cat Stevens on this beautiful, melancholic ode to her deceased friend, flatmate and motivational inspiration, Joe.
“This album has probably been made for Joe,” she explains.
“He did so much for me, and gave me the career I have now – and I never got to repay that. So that song is me telling people how great he was.
“Once Joe died, I had this tunnel vision about making up for lost time.”
In the song, Ciara recounts how she revisited their former abode after Joe’s death, only to spot an Elonmobile in the drive – hence the song title.
You may never look at trees the same way again.
11. Running / Planning
Running / Planning is slow, loopy, late-20s angst pop about clinging to an unhealthy relationship because it’s ‘the thing to do’, as well as the constant uncertainty of modern life.
“It’s about having to chase your own tail to be good enough to exist,” explains CMAT.
“It’s an abstracted view of societal pressure on women – specifically through a relationship lens.
“That narrow path that everyone is supposed to be on – the minute you get outside of that, it gets incredibly stressful.”
An anxiety-fuelled anthem for those determined to go their own way.
12. Janis Joplining
Euro-County climaxes with this odd but beguiling jazz-tinged number about how ill-advised romantic longing is perfect fodder for country music.
“I’ve been thinking about boys again, I’ve been thinking about girls / And I’ve been blaming it on anyone who isn’t me,” CMAT croons, before beseeching the current object of her affections to “stick with me for the night”.
“I’ll make this country anyway” she advises – and when it sounds this good, it would be hard to refuse her advances.
Euro-Country is released today. CMAT will play Dublin’s St Anne’s Park on May 20 and Virgin Media Park in Cork on June 20
