- Music
- 28 Aug 25
Album Review: CMAT, EURO-COUNTRY
Album Of The Month: Irish star delivers bona fide classic. 10/10
Reviewing CMAT’s sophomore album CrazyMad, For Me in 2023, I wrote, “The best prediction is to set the controls for the sun, because this is a goddamn boss record.” Well, hands up, I got that wrong, because following that record’s release, CMAT went goddamn interstellar.
The album was universally acclaimed, as was every gig that followed it. And CMAT mania continues apace – recent single ‘Take A Sexy Picture Of Me’ inspired TikTok’s viral 'Woke Macarena'; her recent appearance on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury was mightily exalted; and her all-slaying headline set at All Together Now has sparked the juicy campaign ‘CMAT MAR UACHTARÁN’.
Which is a more than interesting conceit, considering the criticism contained herein for the possibly preferred Fianna Fáil candidate in the race for the Áras, in fourth single and title track ‘EURO-COUNTRY’, which comes complete with a searing as gaeilge poem.
However, politics’ marvellous gain would be music’s desperate loss. Exhibit A being the fabulously curious ‘The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station’ – careers in the Abbey Theatre have been made on less, and that piano riff is to die for. Meanwhile, the aforementioned ‘Take A Sexy Picture Of Me’ shuffles for premier position in the pantheon of great Irish singles.
Elsewhere ‘Lord, Let That Tesla Crash’ is a Townes Van Zandt-gilded arrow to the heart, while ‘When A Good Man Cries’ is a Gram Parsons-style gem, which is the highest praise I can possibly dole out.
And man, unfailingly, this record is damn funny. But also shrewd with it. Like, Joan Didion shrewd – if you get the gag, you become a co-conspirator. Finally (for now), the mix of genres is awesome, with country, pop, indie and more on the agenda. In particular, the boogie-woogie of ‘Tree Six Foive’, the soulful ‘Ready’ and the folk-doused ‘Coronation St.’ all show CMAT’s brilliance.
Absolutely masterful stuff.
10/10
- Out Friday, August 29.
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