CMAT – Euro-Country
We’ve been living through a renaissance in Irish popular music, with Inhaler, Fontaines DC and Kneecap reaching critical and commercial heights. However, CMAT, aka Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, is in a league of her own. With her third album, Euro-Country, she takes a sonically transatlantic stride forward.
The title track is brimming with personality. Opening in Gaelic, Thompson’s instantly identifiable vocals make way for complementary shuffle drums. It’s a catchy sing-along that’s destined to be a crowd-pleasing favourite. The album is a blend of Irish meets American – in music, in landscape and in scope. Partly recorded at Rancho Deluxe, latest single When a Good Man Cries leans heavily into Nashville, benefitting from tasteful country violin licks.
Ever the talented wordsmith, Thompson sings, “I think of the New York skyline / The West Cork of the Yankee eyeline” on The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station. Meanwhile, Tree Six Foive starts as something that wouldn’t appear out of place on a Dolly Parton album, before morphing into a Lana Del Rey-esque ballad interlude. It showcases Thompson’s confidence, relying on minimal instrumentation to allow her soaring voice to shine.
Take a Sexy Picture of Me is a timely number that highlights the alarming sexualisation of young girls, and their worth being reliant on the male gaze. “You haven’t looked at me the same since I turned 27,” she sings. In an age in which Gen-Z are mourning the deaths of their “teenage faces” and the “sexy baby” aesthetic has been attributed – whether unfairly or not – to the likes of Sabrina Carpenter, it’s a riotously upbeat song that takes a defiant dig at the patriarchy.
Coronation St is another relatable track about FOMO and the loneliness epidemic. With some beautifully harmonised vocals, it’s a song with country-tinged sadness and some exemplary lyrics that balance humour and pathos (“I’m just a barmaid with no lines that lives on Coronation St”). Then, the album takes a surprising left turn at its conclusion. With a distinctly Fiona Apple-style discordant piano line, Janis Joplining ditches the country ranch for the smoky jazz bar. While such an abrupt transition may come across clumsily with any other artist, Thompson has proven herself a multifaceted artist, sure of her own vision.
Musically, this is unapologetically Americana, but lyrically, its heart remains in Ireland. Through well-crafted songs imbued with soon-to-be-iconic witticisms, Euro-Country cements CMAT’s status as a fearless, and indeed, peerless artist.
Antonia Georgiou
Image: Sarah Doyle
Euro-Country is released on 29th August 2025. For further information or to order the album, visit CMAT’s website here.
Watch the video for When a Good Man Cries here:
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