Item: CMAT - Euro-Country
Rating: 5

Reviewer: Daisy Carter

Released: 29th August 2025

Label: AWAL

If her scene-stealing Glasto set or very own viral dance - the so-called ‘woke Macarena’ - weren’t enough to convince you that 2025 truly is the summer of CMAT, then let this third full-length be a definitive answer: ‘EURO-COUNTRY’ is the album that will see Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson make the leap from cult country-pop favourite to bona fide star. From its cover artwork to its tracklist (which boasts such choice cuts as ‘Tree Six Foive’ and ‘Coronation St.’), to the songs themselves, every element is knowingly referential, cheekily self-aware, and impeccably judged, incorporating all the language - musical, visual, thematic - established by her first two albums into a fluent thesis on national identity, fame, and womanhood.

At one end of the spectrum, there’s ‘Lord, Let That Tesla Crash’ - a moving distillation of all the complexity and contradiction that comes with grief - and ‘Iceberg’, a Titanic-referencing account of a relationship’s slow sinking. At the other, there’s ‘When A Good Man Cries’ - a quintessential CMAT hoedown that coins the immortal phrase “Dunboyne Diana” - and ‘The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station’, a diss track-slash-philosophical mediation on resentment that builds to a glorious crescendo of impassioned, deranged vocals decrying the TV chef. ‘EURO-COUNTRY’ and ‘Take A Sexy Picture Of Me’, meanwhile, are surefire contenders for Song of the Year, the former a reconciliatory love letter to her damaged homeland, the latter a scathing indictment of gender-specific ageism and female beauty standards. Never let it be said that pop necessitates simplicity: here, CMAT is ripping up the rulebook and writing her own.

Tags: Album Reviews, Reviews, AWAL, CMAT