Irish country–pop superstar CMAT has shared her effortless new single “Running/Planning,” off her highly-anticipated new album EURO-COUNTRY, her “most important record” to date, set for release on August 29 via AWAL.
CMAT says: “Running/Planning’ is about having to chase your own tail to be good enough to exist. It’s an abstracted view of societal pressure on women – specifically through a relationship lens: You start dating someone, you get engaged, you get married, you have kids etc etc etc… everything has to follow this linear pattern. (That’s the reason for the repetitive chorus!). And the minute you don’t follow that path, your mam starts giving out to you. That narrow path that everyone is supposed to be on… the minute you get outside of that, it gets incredibly stressful. And I don’t know anyone who is like, ‘Yeah, love this!”
“Running/Planning’ is about having to chase your own tail to be good enough to exist. It’s an abstracted view of societal pressure on women – specifically through a relationship lens: You start dating someone, you get engaged, you get married, you have kids etc etc etc… everything has to follow this linear pattern. (That’s the reason for the repetitive chorus!). And the minute you don’t follow that path, your mam starts giving out to you. That narrow path that everyone is supposed to be on… the minute you get outside of that, it gets incredibly stressful. And I don’t know anyone who is like, ‘Yeah, love this!”
Despite this being her third album, this fully-formed acronymic star feels like she’s been part of the culture forever. EURO-COUNTRY follows 2023’s brilliant Crazymad, For Me – an album that propelled her to wider attention and garnered numerous accolades including: a BRITs Best International Artist nod; and ‘Best Album’ nominations from the Ivors; Mercury Prize and the Choice Music Prize in her native Ireland (an award she won for her debut, If My Wife New I’d Be Dead).
She also unveils a mammoth run of UK live dates – including a high-profile Glastonbury slot and her biggest headliners to date: London’s O2 Academy Brixton and Dubin’s 3 Arena.
