Irish pop country sensation returns with her long-awaited third studio album, titled Eurocountry. It is her first album since 2023, and it does not disappoint!

Few people could get away with singing about their hatred for Jamie Oliver, the collapse of the Celtic Tiger and a casual nod to Calpol, and make it work. But Ciara Mary Alice Thompson, better known as CMAT, has made a career out of turning the strange, the silly and the deeply personal into something bold, beautiful, and unforgettable. Her new album is proof that she is not just Ireland’s sharpest storyteller, but one of the most fearless voices in pop today.

I must admit that I only recently discovered CMAT. I had an idea of who she was because of her song writing credit in ‘I like your look’ by the Blossoms. But with the release of the second single off her new album,‘Take a Sexy Picture of Me,’ her ability to take criticism and hate and turn into something fun and catchy without taking the seriousness away from it is impeccable.

The album’s title track ‘EURO-COUNTRY’ is the second track off the album and arguably one of the most important. The song it about the 2008 economic crash in Ireland following Bertie Ahern’s 12-year stint as the Irish Prime Minister, which resulted in hundreds of houses being built and left unoccupied or unfinished, suicide rates in men increasing to 57% and so much more. Ireland has been glamourised in many ways by a lot of people and CMAT was tired of this. I love the old Irish sections of this song, specifically the intro, it really pays homage to the message she’s trying to convey.

“The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station” is CMAT at her most ridiculous and brilliant. Only she could turn pure contempt and hatred for a celebrity chef into an addictive sing-along. It’s camp, it’s cheeky, and yet it lands with a strangely relatable punch, because underneath the humour is her usual sting of frustration at modern life. It is a song that shouldn’t work on paper, but in her hands, it’s a highlight.

“Lord, Let This Tesla Crash” feels like a prayer screamed into the void, theatrical and unapologetically messy. The drama is turned up to eleven, big choruses, almost gospel-like pleading, and lyrics that teeter between despair and defiance. It is CMAT at her most unhinged, but that is what makes it magnetic.

“Running Planning” is a different kind of heartbreak, stripping back the chaos and letting the bittersweet ache take over. The melody is cleaner, sadder, but still carries that sharp CMAT wit in the writing. It is vulnerable without losing her edge, the kind of song that sneaks up on you long after the album stops playing. Proof that Thompson isn’t just clever, she is a master of making you feel something you did not expect.

In a world oversaturated with copy-and-paste pop stars and playlists that all blur into one, CMAT’s new album feels like a much-needed reset. Thompson has carved out her own lane entirely, one where absurd humour sits comfortably alongside heartbreak, and where no topic is too strange or too niche to be turned into a chorus you will be humming for days. It’s bold, it’s theatrical, and it refuses to be boxed in by what pop music is “supposed” to sound like. That’s what makes it so refreshing, a reminder that pop can still surprise us, that it can be strange, specific, and still hit you right in the gut. In a time when so much music feels engineered to sound the same, CMAT’s world feels like the start of something new, and honestly, it is exactly what we have been waiting for.

CMAT: Eurocountry, 29 August 2025, (CMATBABY and AWAL)

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