It was a combination of her performing as a support act for Sam Fender, captivating festival slots from Primavera to Glastonbury, and her very own TikTok dance (“the woke macarena”) that solidified her place in the charts and won over the streams of thousands of new monthly listeners.
Timing, then, could hardly be better for the release of her new album as the season comes to a head. ‘EURO-COUNTRY’, the Irish singer-songwriter’s third full-length release, is quintessential CMAT, an even blend of playfulness (tracks like ‘The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station’) and potency (tracks like ‘Running/Planning’) – and sometimes an amalgam of both (‘Take A Sexy Picture Of Me’).
CMAT delivered an introduction to the album on Substack, where she outlined “the big 3 points” she wanted to make with ‘EURO-COUNTRY’ by defining the album title in her terms, and providing a framework for us to understand the album through: 1) “The genre of music” she makes, 2) “the type of loss, pain and lack of community” she feels we suffer from “under modern capital isolation” and 3) “Ireland, the love of [her] life, the most toxic boyfriend [she’s] ever had”.
While she admits to a complicated relationship with her motherland in this written piece, she asserts her identity through unapologetic, Irish pronunciation wherever she can - from the “tings” in the TikTok-famous hook of ‘Take A Sexy Picture Of Me’ to the song title ‘Tree Six Foive’. The album’s title track features an introductory verse sung in the Irish language, cementing Ireland as the beating core of ‘EURO-COUNTRY’ in spite of her contradictory feelings towards it.
Thematically, CMAT flawlessly switches between the universal and the personal. From the eponymous track detailing the effects of the downfall of the Celtic Tiger (“I was 12 when the das started killing themselves”) to her discussing her loneliness on ‘Coronation St.’ (“I’m 23 and everyone is having fun except for me”), the record opens itself out to the masses as she is radically honest with us. While the faux-pop sound of her TikTok moment may have enticed the listeners in, the full extent of her project reveals an intricate, deeply layered artistry that builds devotees at the church of CMAT.
‘EURO-COUNTRY’ is a showcase of Thompson at her most confident. While it shares the uniform melancholia of her previous works, it repackages it with the help of upbeat instrumentals and belting vocals to create a clever juxtaposition between the tune and the lyrics – no easy feat, but one that only a seasoned professional like CMAT could execute perfectly.
With a string of upcoming sold-out shows across the UK, Ireland, and the USA, it’s clear that the self-proclaimed “Dunboyne Diana” is taking over. While the themes of her work don’t quite allow her the “pop princess” title, she’s certainly a Euro-country enchantress.
Zahra Hanif
Image: ‘EURO-COUNTRY’ Official Album Cover
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