cmatbaby: the first pic is the day in the lake district in August 2024 that me and Oli first discussed possibly making EURO-COUNTRY together. i played him the title song in question on my omnichord in an entirely wrong key, and we went from there.
the middle pics are of the view that i spent most of the making of this record staring at. the new york skyline at sundown from our comfortable spot in the light show studios in greenpoint in brooklyn. when the album was feeling particularly difficult to make we would escape to the three decker diner for the most perfect food and/or bloody marys that money could buy. sometimes i would go line dancing in brooklyn too, to remember how to use my body and not just my brain. she was running like a hamster on a wheel trying to get this album to make sense .
the last pic is me and oli in the k-hole in dalston the other night, at the album launch party, drunk on alcohol and the fact that we actually managed to get the album to make sense.
today is the day that EURO-COUNTRY is out in the world. i am so happy that we made it even though it was the hardest job i have ever had in my life. i hope you can hear how much work went into it, along with a genuinely quite large part of our souls. I love my friend Oli and i am so happy i met him when i was 18. he is for some reason always willing to help me be heard.
Nobody else is making music like this Irish sensation and she’s utterly charming on Album #3
Unstarred review by Bill Pearis for Brooklyn Vegan
Full review under cut:
“This is making no sense to the average listener,” Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson tells the listener, interrupting her own song, “Jamie Oliver Petrol Station,” about a minute in. “Let me try to explain myself in a few words.” This is CMAT in a nutshell: singing about her disdain for celebrity chef Jamie Oliver (“that man should not have his face on posters”) but then catching herself—”OK don’t be a bitch / The man’s got kids / And they wouldn’t like this”—all against a twangy, orchestral pop backdrop.
EURO-COUNTRY is CMAT’s third album, and she says it’s her most “country” record yet. That’s true, in a way, though it’s an Irish version of country—more like The Waterboys circa Fisherman’s Blues filtered through a distinctly modern lens. Tracks like “Tree Six Foive” (that’s “3-6-5” with an Irish accent) and “When a Good Man Cries” lean most heavily into the genre, but for the most part CMAT remains straight-up pop. “I don’t know anyone that’s making anything that’s like my music,” she told MOJO recently, and she’s not wrong.
The country-ness really comes through in Ciara’s lyrics, which are personal, emotionally rich, unexpected, and often laugh-out-loud funny (but never novelty). She’s got the same wit and attitude as Reba McEntire or Dolly Parton in their prime, and she’s just as quick to poke fun at herself. “I’m a writer, I don’t do crushes,” she sings on “Janis Joplining,” following it immediately with “I do problematic attentions.” She can also devastate with heartbreak, like this verse from “Lord, Let That Tesla Crash”:
"My memories are loaded with what I wanted
But I couldn’t have with you
That picture’s burnt on my TV
Now I watch Coronation Street through ghosts of you all neon green"
The hook quotient is just as high as the one for one-liners and there isn’t a forgettable song on EURO-COUNTRY. Produced by Oli Deakin (who also worked on her debut If My Wife New I’d Be Dead), the record is lushly arranged and a showcase for Ciara’s acrobatic voice, which can bellow, side-eye, or soar. Especially striking are the harmonies, which at times approach Kate Bush/Kirsty MacColl levels of gossamer, particularly on the Dusty Springfield-esque “Paint a Sexy Picture for Me [sic],” the album’s most undeniable song.
CMAT may well win the Mercury Prize next year—and she’d deserve it. There’s truly nobody else like her.
germansingergirl
turnnoffyourmind
titsay
yousharknotpass
gummygunk
vaporwave
stormborns
