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Irish singer-songwriter Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson mixes Nashville storytelling, folk-ish pop, and rock meltdowns on her great third album Euro-Country<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \n\t\u201cAnother good idea\/I saved the messages you sent the night you tried to sleep with her\/Happy new year,\u201d Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson \u2014 a.k.a. the Irish singer-songwriter CMAT<\/a> \u2014 coos at the outset of \u201cTree Six Foive,\u201d a barn-dance kiss-off from her third album Euro-Country. <\/em>It offers a neat encapsulation of what has made CMAT such a standout talent since she released her first singles at the beginning of the decade: the line paints a bad relationship in hyper-detailed miniature; it\u2019s self \u2014 <\/strong> and other \u2014 lacerating in a way that resembles a single, gasped guffaw; and her sweetly serpentine voice means that the blades she\u2019s wielding come coated in honey.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tCMAT is an astute observer, whether she\u2019s looking inward or outward. Her frank, wry depictions of female ambition\u2019s dark side (the loose-limbed \u201cIceberg\u201d), departing from the spouse-and-kids norm (the chiming \u201cRunning\/Planning,\u201d which has a sumptuous chorus), and the late-\u201800s Irish recession (the spectacular title track) are balanced by an audible empathy that also lays bare her hopes for the world\u2019s fates to improve. Those hopes are given extra wistfulness by how CMAT\u2019s songs are laid out; they blend the storytelling-focused lyrics and twangy instrumentation of Nashville with the plush splendor of 21st-century folk-ish pop, as well as the occasional rock meltdown.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n