SLS: Take A Sexy Picture

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CMAT onstage at Wide Awake 2025, wearing sunglasses, an orange shirt and a tie

 

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, Jim’s invitation is to play a song by ‘an artist that you just discovered.’ His post Recently Created Compositions tells more. You’d think that after all these years I would have found every artist that would interest me, but that’s the beauty of music: there is always something more to find. My most recent occurrence of this was when I was choosing songs three weeks ago for Tuesday Tunes 296: Six, in which I celebrated six years of Tuesday Tunes by playing a set of six songs with ‘six’ in their title. I’ve given you the link to the post in case you missed it, as in it you will find today’s choice: Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, perhaps better known as CMAT. As I said in that piece I found her from a YouTube recommendation, and as ever their algorithm was spot on.

CMAT is an Irish singer-songwriter, also known for her political activism. The Guardian newspaper wrote of her music, “Her songs are mournful yet accessible, emotionally literate and cleverly crafted, but, crucially, with a huge sense of humour.” She has released three studio albums, If My Wife New I’d Be Dead (2022), Crazymad, for Me (2023) and Euro-Country (2025), all of which reached #1 in Ireland.

 

 

The song I played that time was Tree Six Foive, a track from CMAT’s most recent album, Euro-Country, the title being a reference to her being from Ireland with suitable pronunciation. Having found and liked her music I was encouraged to try more, and I thought it would be a good idea to play some other tracks from that album. Starting with this one:

And for the lyrics, genius.com is, of course, as obliging as always.

Take A Sexy Picture Of Me was released as a single in May 2025, peaking at #22 in Ireland and #42 in the UK. It was then included on the Euro-Country album, which was released last August and made #1 in Ireland and #2 in the UK, no doubt helped by her excellent performance at the Glastonbury Festival. In an interview with the NME music magazine, CMAT said:

“With the internet, every woman is now in the public eye. And no matter who you are, or what you look like, somebody will take umbrage with the fact that you even exist, and there’s no escaping it. ‘Take a Sexy Picture of Me’ was born out of that, because I held back for so long; not out of frustration or sadness for myself, because I am in the public eye, but I realised it’s actually like this for every woman. It’s all women, all the time. That song is me calling out anyone who criticised my weight or how I looked… and it’s one of the best songs I’ve ever made.”

You get the point, don’t you. She wrote all of the tracks on the album, some – but not this one – with co-writers. This was all her own work, and was a strong response to the negativity she had experienced about her appearance. If I hadn’t liked her before, this song would have converted me to her: a catchy tune and a well-made serious message.

There are many tracks on the album that I like. Here’s another:

And again it is genius.com with the lyrics. I think “I waited for love, with a cricket bat” is one of the better opening lines I’ve come across recently! When A Good Man Cries was released as a single at the same time as the album, and peaked at #23 in Ireland and #92 in the UK. The song centres on themes of reflection, remorse, and redemption as the narrator struggles with wanting to change her behaviour towards her lovers. On the record it immediately follows on from the title track, and she has explained that this was done intentionally in order to convey the makeup of the album. Speaking to Apple Music, she said “I’m really glad the way those two songs run into each other. That’s one of the most successful bits of the album. I needed to go full country immediately, so everyone knew what the record was.”

After that, there is only one thing I can do, isn’t there? Yup, play that title track:

And in case you were wondering what she was saying at the beginning the full lyrics from genius.com reveal all: it was in Gaelic, so you can be excused for not understanding it, unless of course you speak the language.

Euro-Country is CMAT’s perspective on the fallout from the 2008 financial crash as a child living in a small town, and her feelings of being disconnected from her cultural identity, which mirrors Ireland’s struggle to reconcile its past with its new identity as a consumerist, globalised “Euro-Country.” She has explained that whilst her family got through the aftermath of the crash many others in her area didn’t: loads of people lost their jobs, and there were some suicides as a result, which she mentions in the song. It was released as a single in July 2025 and reached #9 in Ireland, also making #44 in the UK Indie chart.

The song’s first broadcast on BBC Radio 1 generated controversy when the first 45 seconds, featuring that Irish-language spoken word introduction, were omitted. In response to the backlash, the BBC denied purposefully censoring the introduction and released a statement that they played the copy of the track that had been provided by CMAT’s record label, AWAL. Following this, CMAT posted on her Instagram page that it was not her decision to have this edited out, and that the BBC had contacted her to advise that they would be playing the full version to make up for it. She added “I don’t know who edited it out – that was crazy of them.” In her post, she also highlighted that another line had been edited out, which she described as “more understandable due to the mention of suicide.” The song is a very strong political statement, and I admire her courage.

That’s my new find for today’s theme, and I hope you enjoyed these: I really like CMAT and have added all of her albums to my Apple Music library. I’m signing off with my usual thanks to Jim for hosting, my wishes that you will enjoy your day, and to remind you to drop back in again here for the next Tuesday Tunes episode. See you soon 😊

39 thoughts on “SLS: Take A Sexy Picture”

  2. I like her style/image, and the wacky videos. Not sure I would rush to buy any of her records, but I listened to all of your selections and liked each one for different reasons. I will probably watch her videos again (and future ones) on You Tube.

    Best wishes, Pete.

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  6. Clive, THANK YOU for the introduction to CMAT. I’m an instant fan after listening to her voice, watching her brilliant videos, and reading the brilliant lyrics. Really really good! And she’s Irish, which is an excellent bonus. Honestly, the Irish Part should be first in my comment.

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    • She’s has had three #1 albums in Ireland so you must have been listening to the wrong radio station! I’m pleased you like her, as I think she’s great. I think you’ll enjoy more of her music when you catch up with her.

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  9. Nice choice, Clive and I love the way Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson or CMAT looks like she is having so much fun when she is singing, as that is great to see how enthusiastic she is. “Suckin’ diesel” is a common Irish slang phrase meaning that things are going very well, work is progressing smoothly, or a task has finally gained momentum, often after a slow start. It is commonly used to mean “now we’re making progress” or that a project is finally on track, effectively equating successful progress with a machinery engine running at full power. I enjoy all three songs that you went with.

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    • I think she mixes a lot of fun with some very serious lyrics, and I really like the way she does it. I knew the phrase from working with several Irish people in my time – one of them once got misheard by the boss, who thought it was a comment about him, that rhymed!

      I’m pleased you enjoyed these 👍

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  10. Terrific! I did not know this music but my wife and I love it! My wife had the Icelandic singer Laufey – whole name Laufey Lín Bing Jónsdóttir – also a songwriter and cellist known for her modern jazz-pop style, often described as “bedroom jazz”. She’s coming back on my wife’s show next week and I am going to post a story about her incredible music…thanks for this one!

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    • I’m pleased you enjoyed this, John. She hasn’t done anything in the States so far, but is beginning to break big here. Maybe Alex could invite her onto her show? She is great live, so wouldn’t disappoint.

      I know of Laufey – Icelandic/Chinese is quite a mix. I love her voice and style. She has recorded with dodie and together they sang with Jacob Collier in a live performance of the folk song ‘Wild Mountain Thyme.’ If you haven’t seen it, do take a look – it’s amazing!

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