CMAT - 'EURO-COUNTRY' • DIY Magazine

Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson has been here before. Twelve months ago, to be precise, when she was first shortlisted alongside Charli xcx, The Last Dinner Party and morefor the 2024 Mercury Prize. But while her excellent second album, ‘Crazymad, For Me’, ultimately lost out to English Teacher’s ‘This Could Be Texas’, this might be the year our self-styled Dunboyne Diana swings it with ‘EURO-COUNTRY’.

Unquestionably one of the breakout stars of 2025, you could argue that CMAT has lived rent-free in the popular consciousness ever since the release of her single ‘Running/Planning’ back in March. A slow-burning anthem skewering patriarchal pressure on women to achieve a timely happy- ever-after, she followed it with the song of the summer in the shape of ‘Take A Sexy Picture Of Me’. Couching a brutal takedown of society’s unhealthy obsession with youth in a deliriously infectious soul-bop, it spawned a viral TikTok dance trend and tee-d up a scene-stealing Glastonbury set that culminated in the singer leading the chant of “Free Palestine!”

If that Pyramid Stage performance proved anything, it’s that CMAT the polemicist and CMAT the entertainer are simply two sides of the same coin. This message is underscored in epic fashion on her irresistible third album, ‘EURO-COUNTRY’.

A bold, risk-taking record, capable of making listeners wince, laugh and cry in quick succession.

Combining a brilliantly biting wit with the kind of warts-and-all candour most artists only pay lip service to, these stories of dysfunctional relationships and self-loathing are expressed with a cultural colloquialism that is at once hilarious and painfully relatable. ‘The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station’ casts the TV chef as a scapegoat through which to examine Thompson’s own judgemental tendencies. On the album’s title track, she compares her suffering to that of Kerry Katona and the mythical Irish warrior Cú Chulainn, while the ABBA-esque lilt of ‘Iceberg’ sees her using the plot of Titanic to provoke an argument purely for the reaction.

At the root of it all are a raft of truly bulletproof melodies – from the country-pop of ‘Tree Six Foive’ to the ambling folk stylings of ‘Coronation St.’ – with Thompson’s supple vocals providing both delectable drama and a powerful emotional focal point. Indeed, listening to her swoop and soar through ‘When A Good Man Cries’, you get the sense that her very own Vegas residency could be within easy reach.

Her most powerful performance is on the haunting ballad, and title track, ‘EURO-COUNTRY’. Beginning in Gaelic before switching to English, she examines her uneasy relationship with Ireland (“Everything I thought that I could be / He cut it in half”) and the tragic impact of the 2008 financial crash on local communities (“I was twelve when the das started killing themselves all around me’). It’s a genuinely gut-wrenching moment, and one that reinforces Thompson’s fearless approach to pop songwriting. ‘EURO-COUNTRY’ is a bold, risk-taking record, capable of making listeners wince, laugh and cry in quick succession.

DIY has teamed up with LNER - the Official Travel Partner of the 2025 Mercury Prize Newcastle - to celebrate the power of journeys, both musical and literal. Read our full 2025 Mercury Prize Newcastle special edition below.

Tags: Features, CMAT