My partner has been playing this album, EURO-COUNTRY, by Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, better known as CMAT, nonstop since she discovered it back in September. I’ll admit I wasn’t as enraptured by this newer Irish country pop star upon my first listen, but now, after a few listens of really diving into this album, I get the appeal.
CMAT is unapologetically herself on EURO-COUNTRY, jumping between some very classic country sounds (“When A Good Man Cries”) and mixing them in with some fun indie pop moments (“Take A Sexy Picture Of Me”). Her voice is huge and playful, and her tick Irish accent gives a unique feel to songs like the title track and the jumpy and catchy “Tree Six Foive.”
The album is full of weird comedy and self-critical wit, with one-liners like “9 years old, tryna wax my legs with tape,” on “Take A Sexy Picture Of Me,” a song about the crazy beauty standards Thompson felt as a young girl in Ireland. Or how about one of my personal favourite’s “The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station,” a song about how much CMAT dislikes the celebrity chef, but has built him up as this shrine of her own personal self-loathing. That song is wacky as hell, with the rickety piano, CMAT’s freakish falsettos, a drunken fiddle, bat shit rock drumming, and some random as hell lyrics that only make sense to CMAT herself.
Another standout for me is the last track, “Janis-Joplining,” another moment of self-laceration that seems, musically, like a parody of a Regina Spektor ballad with its minor-keyed piano and CMAT’s quick-wit verse. The chorus is a beautiful layering of CMAT’s voices: country twang, rasp, and monolithic pipes.
Amongst all of the new pop stars, CMAT stands a bit outside—as this quirky soul who is still finding her voice; perhaps a bit too weird for the pop mainstream, but building an interesting musical cult nonetheless.
