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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
Exuberance, sheer confidence and innate understanding of just what makes pop special provide a stunning entry into a distinct and idiosyncratic world.
100
Great music, big personality and a sense of fun that never loses the run of itself – who needs religion when we have CMAT to guide us?
90
There is both a braggadocios confidence and an honest humility across all of If My Wife New I’d be Dead, a masterfully created dichotomy that is at the center of everything that CMAT creates.
80
CMAT’s If My Wife New I’d Be Dead is a fully formed debut, replete with big choruses, imaginative song ideas, and enough charm to carry the hour runtime.
80
It's a witty and thoroughly delightful debut.
80
The Dublin artist's witty and conversational debut album sees her match the scope and ambition of her pop heroes.
80
It amps up the winking, cheeky side of country while also showing CMAT to be an artist not beholden to it.
80
On her near-perfect debut, CMAT proves she's a pop tour de force who knows exactly who she wants to be and has all the talent to deliver it.
80
Gifted with a knack for sparkling toplines and galaxy- class choruses, the way she twines narrative threads into cathartic, surrealist Lana Del Rey songs is remarkable.
80
One of the best albums of 2022.
80
Meshing all of the above together, the album as a whole is enjoyable from start to finish stacked with, dare I say, potential sync placements – but who am I to say?
7mo
70
If you fancy a dose of escapist country-tinged pop with lyrics that range from witty, insightful, self-deprecating to plain daft, then CMAT is certainly your gal. If My Wife New I’d Be Dead is a promising debut from an artist who certainly knows how to craft a tune.
70
This might be her debut, but the clean production and seamless blending of pop and country genres makes it feel like CMAT is far from just getting started.
Lana Del Rey but good.
EDIT 95->89: Didn't like it as much on my 3rd and 4th listens but it's still one of the best alt-country albums I've ever heard.
EDIT 89->86: Don’t mind me
the genius of CMAT is the combination of self-parody (and a healthy dose of other-parody if you catch the references) with major league songwriting chops, and a powerful voice that was born to sing country wailers. her lyrics are genuinely clever if sometimes overly Irish-centric and achieve a playful inversion of the standard woe-is-me alt-country melodrama. this is all about theatrics so it will be off-putting to some but I find it appealing. best songs are the ultra-mega-classic "I ... read more
A pleasant country-pop album with lively vocals and captivating, somewhat cheeky lyrics. There are some tracks here that feel sonically a bit stale but for the most part, it's a lovely listen.
I first listened to this album about a year ago and in all honesty, I found it hard to digest at first. And that's not necessarily a bad thing since there's a lot to unpack here, but that's why it's taken me so long to finally revisit it and rate it as I had intended to for ages. I actually really enjoyed this quirky and somewhat absurdist country pop album. CMAT has a fresh voice that I find to be beautiful and given the way the vocals are recorded for this album (which seem to be, for the ... read more
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Track List
| 1 | Nashville 5:16 | 87 |
| 2 | I Don't Really Care for You 4:04 | 84 |
| 3 | Peter Bogdanovich 4:37 | 77 |
| 4 | No More Virgos 4:03 | 79 |
| 5 | Lonely 4:44 | 78 |
| 6 | Groundhog Day 4:42 | 77 |
| 7 | Communion 2:59 | 72 |
| 8 | Every Bottle (Is My Boyfriend) 4:48 | 79 |
| 9 | 2 Wrecked 2 Care 4:01 | 78 |
| 10 | Geography Teacher 3:54 | 71 |
| 11 | I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby! 5:10 | 84 |
| 12 | I’d Want U 3:23 | 73 |
Total Length: 51 minutes
Year End Lists
| #3 | / | Hot Press |
| #4 | / | Gigwise |
| #10 | / | Dork |
| #74 | / | PopMatters |
| / | Slate | |
| / | The Vinyl Factory |
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Added on: October 27, 2021