Dublin’s Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson has delivered something truly special with EURO-COUNTRY. After years of relentless touring, musical growth, and well-earned momentum, her third album arrives as a sharp statement of both artistic and critical triumph – distilling everything that makes CMAT such a compelling force in music right now.
The album’s momentum began building as early as March with Running/Planning, but it was Take A Sexy Picture Of Me in May that truly captured widespread attention through its viral TikTok moment. By the time I caught CMAT at Primavera Sound in Barcelona in June, the stage was absolutely flooded with fans clearly won over by her shining, genuine personality. The show was my favourite of the whole festival- showcasing her older material while debuting then unreleased tracks from EURO-COUNTRY, including the live premiere of Jamie Oliver Petrol Station. It’s safe to say I was counting down the days to this release.
And it was worth it! Euro Country complements and improves CMAT’s catalogue. The songwriting reaches new heights of hilarious wit, diary-entry storytelling, and raw emotional confessions. The opening titular track EURO-COUNTRY perfectly encapsulates this – it balances these lyrical themes with rich, well-layered instrumentation and a country-tinged hook. The song kicks off the album with a sense of mourning, though you might not immediately catch this as the intro is sung in the Irish language. CMAT laments the loss of a relationship or place, asking if she’ll still be herself after so much has been taken from her. It’s a beautifully authentic way to start the album, and it lays the emotional groundwork for the album’s themes. Later in the track, CMAT reckons with loneliness after returning to Ireland post-heartbreak. She compares herself to Cú Chulainn and Kerry Katona – a funny simile showcasing her feelings of isolation in a country that, after adopting the euro, struggled with an identity crisis, which led to national turmoil.
Jamie Oliver Petrol Station is a lyrical gem. CMAT lays out tangled emotions in capturing how an everyday sight can trigger a wave of irritation and alienation. She transforms the odd experience of seeing the man’s name at a deli into a portrait of feeling unsettled and misunderstood in social settings – caught between resentment, discomfort, and the search for self-validation. The chorus amusingly admonishes herself while trying to ground this anger – it’s an earworm of a hook. Take A Sexy Picture Of Me takes the cake and eats it too. It’s the album’s catchiest radio-friendly banger while studying body image and societal standards of being attractive. The song was spawned by online bullying after a BBC Instagram video that had to disable comments due to hate speech. This inspired CMAT to write about body-shaming and the need to look ‘sexy ’or ‘young ’to be treated seriously. She comprehensively works this into a pop banger – which she absolutely does.
The album’s emotional depths are explored further on Lord, Let That Tesla Crash, CMAT’s tender meditation on grief and the peculiar ways we process loss. The track mourns her first experience losing a close friend, weaving personal anecdotes with reflections on death and memory. The seemingly mundane Tesla becomes a symbol of unresolved emotions and lingering anger – a profoundly moving exploration of how grief can twist ordinary sights into flashpoints of pain.
Production-wise, this album is a treat. Previously, some arrangements of her work sounded less unique (huge exceptions being I Wanna Be a Cowboy Baby and Aw Shoot). EURO-COUNTRY finally sounds like a cohesive body of work that’s uniquely CMAT. It maintains her style of country mixed with Irish folk, with touches of Brit-pop and soaring pop climaxes but pulls these off with consistent detail and flair. The lap steel guitar work deserves particular praise. It’s performed and incorporated masterfully, hanging countermelodies in the back of many tracks that answer the lyrics like a call-and-response between words and emotions. It swells and glides to allow more seamless transitions and add depth to moments of ramping catharsis.
My main criticism when listening to this album was that it packs most of its exciting moments in its first half, meaning the second half loses the momentum that the first half has in spades. It makes up for this by offering space and room for the more emotional moments, like the aforementioned Lord, Let That Tesla Crash, but left me feeling like the record was unbalanced. My only other (albeit nitpicky) gripe was the placement of the track Janis Joplining – a really interesting track with a unique chord structure, but a very odd choice for the closer to the album. This is accentuated by the penultimate track Running/Planning sounding like the perfect closure to the album sonically and thematically.
Ultimately, EURO-COUNTRY succeeds because CMAT has finally found the perfect balance between her various influences and her own unique voice. She’s created something that feels authentically Irish while being universally relatable. The album captures the complexity of modern life – the way personal heartbreak intersects with political frustration, how humour can coexist with genuine pain. Most importantly, it showcases an artist who refuses to choose between intelligence and accessibility, between authenticity and polish. This is CMAT at her absolute best, delivering an album that’s both deeply personal and completely irresistible. What’s more, the album has recently earned CMAT her second Mercury Prize nomination. This recognition feels well-deserved for an album that positions CMAT as a major force in contemporary pop. This is definitely one to listen to on a system that will showcase the detail of the folk instrumentation all over this album – pop into your local Richer Sounds store to score yourself a deal on some speakers or headphones to maximise your listening experience.
Author: Elliot, Holborn Store
