“I waited for love with a cricket bat …” Packed with witty, offbeat and super-sharp, candidly personal lyrics, soaring, gorgeous vocals and melodies, all with an eccentric turns, the charismatic Dublin country-pop star and songwriter Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson brings home her third, and best LP yet. That opening line comes from When A Good Man Cries, exemplary of how CMAT has a blend or emotional depth and irreverence, a sense of social absurdity and dark-humoured tragedy all wrapped in catchy songs that seem to breach mainstream appeal with eccentric particularity. She can summon broad, international appeal but also include more niche references in her lyrics, some of which Irish/British, such as TV chef Jamie Oliver (with his face all over a petrol station deli), reality TV star Kerry Catona, Willa Wonka spoilt girl Veruca Salt, Dorian Gray, Calpol and Coronation Street. Her song titles come with a dark, tragic, sometimes mischievously twist. Lord, Let That Tesla Crash might at first appear to be a reference to a certain right-wing billionaire, but is in fact a tribute to an old housemate who died, her grief is tangled with emotional avoidance and unreciprocated affection (a theme that recurs in her songs). and she candidly also admits “I don’t miss you like I should”. Yet her pain is directed at the Tesla owner who has parked outside their old home, instantly summoning stories within stories with a lively imagination and stormy, emotional turmoil. The title track is both a singalong beauty but also filled with tragedy, recalling her youth during the time of the Ireland’s Celtic Tiger economic crash (“I was 12 when the Das started killing themselves all around me”) with, as wtih When A Good Man Cries, conjures vivid recollections of her adolescence in Dunboyne, County Meath (“All the mooching ’round shops, and the lack of identity”). Running/Planning has a slow, steady pace and simple melody, with lyrics about dreams and ambition, but contains sudden unhinged lines, creating an imaginary boyfriend, ripping his head off and then promising to buy said head a Nintendo and “all the games”. In the catchy Take A Sexy Picture of Me, she also harks back to childhood, singing with an audible smile, but instantly captures the nature of toxic femininity describing an attempt to wax her legs with tape aged nine. Ouch. Like the best country songs, there’s plenty of beauty and pain, pathos and tragedy, expressed by a singer-songwriter who is brilliantly bonkers, and hitting a new peak of her undeniably huge talent. Out on CMATBaby / AWAL.
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