CMAT – ‘Euro-Country’ album review

CMAT’s reading of ‘take it seriously’ does not mean that the record is devoid of wit: humour, talent and focus power this record. Just like her other albums, where a song about a mental health crisis is told through a tale of going bald on ‘Vincent Company’ or ‘I Wanna Be a Cowboy, Baby’, where a Vine reference leads her emotional hit about striving for success despite the darkness, Euro-Country maintains the same infectious lighter side even on the heaviest of topics.

See ‘Take a Sexy Picture of Me’ as the ultimate example as she grapples with the experience of being body shamed en masse online, or the way that society in general loses interest in women the second they turn older. “And make me look 14, oh / Or like ten, or like five / Or like two, like a baby / Whoever it is that you’re gonna love / So you’ll be nice to me,” she sings at the end. It’s silly and it’s sharp, scathing towards society, full of nuance but also utterly ridiculous.

That’s a line she has always walked masterfully and unlike anyone else of her time. CMAT can put a punchline in the heaviest conversation, and neither the joke nor the topic at hand loses weight. No feeling is ever diluted. In fact, her devotion to wit makes it hit heavier as she writes songs like they’re direct messages from your best friend and spoken in your language, so you can really hear what’s behind them.

But in the mission to take Euro-Country seriously, she let the jokes dry up in places to take on something bigger. The titular track shows that clearest as CMAT stares down the barrel and sings a song about the 2000s financial crisis, not being shy to get political about it. Singing first in Gaelic before getting hyper specific, the song’s bridge sees her raging about “All the big boys, all the Berties”, calling out the old Irish prime minister and getting into the weeds of a tricky topic, managing to write the nation’s rage about the collapse of the Celtic Tiger into a pop song. Who else can do that? Who else can make the topic of the recession so catchy that an entire festival field will sing it back? 

In other places, her serious lens is intensely personal, more so than it ever has been, which is really saying something for an artist as open as CMAT. ‘Lord, Let That Tesla Crash’ holds the memory of a recently lost friend, dealing with grief in her own specific way once again, invoking with the hyper speed the space between humour and true, deep heart, with the two working in tandem.

This is an album that has everything. It is so obvious that CMAT put everything into it, dealing with such a vast array of thoughts, feelings and topics, backed by a broad musical landscape from Stevie Nicks-style rock to pure country sorrow. It’s a trim album of absolutely everything where each and every phrase feels necessary and of benefit, no space is wasted, no track a skip. Everything is all out, and CMAT has gone all in. The result? An opus. An opus of her talent, her wit and her vital voice on vital topics of real-world happenings and inner world emotions. 

A standout track: ‘Janis Joplining’ – At the end of this golden album, CMAT gets jazzy and more abstract as she delivers, in the final moments, some of her best lyrics yet. A genius reading of being a writer and being a woman, the obsessive self-analysis that takes and the pain that can cause. A tale of hyper self-awareness and the desire to be loved and seen, shared by the entertainer and the girl inside.

For fans of: Big thoughts, big feelings, big topics and big tunes to hold them.

A summarising quote from the mouth of Girls’ Hannah Horvath: “I think that I may be The Voice of My Generation…or at least a voice of a generation”.

Release date: August 29th, 2025 | Producer: CMAT and Oli Deakin | Label: CMATBaby via AWAL

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