Live Review: CMAT - O2 Brixton Academy, London 01/12/2025
2026 is on course to be the year of CMAT as she lights up Brixton Academy – and gives a star power performance that shows its your last chance to see her in a venue this small; reminding everyone that she’s the best singer/songwriter of her generation.
When CMAT played at End of the Road 2024 you could tell there was a star and future festival headliner in the making; magic in the air – and what followed earned her a returning headline slot in 2026 opposite Pulp and Mac DeMarco; and festival headliners across pretty much every major scene. The star power in ascendency was evident from the moment she beelined to the stage through the audience – never coming in from the back; only the front – immersing herself in the crowd. Immediately, she signs a spotlight of the giant self-described “Coldplay Cam” into the audience – held up by a giant £2 coin – to which people follow suit in the way you’d expect. Her spotlight shines on tees in the crowd; Dykes for CMAT, Trannies for CMAT and finally, MILFS for CMAT. The target demographic – in her words. Her humour is naturally brilliant – and today is no exception. If she ever steps away from music – heaven forbid - she could quite easily be a career comedian.
American country artist Fancy Hagood is up first – and the comedy is in full flow; claiming that in the UK people will applaud him for being gay whereas in the US, it’s a lot worse. His mum is here tonight, bless her – so we get a warning that one of his songs features talk of cocaine, which he insists is not his thing. His record American Spirit: The Last Drag enters queer country into the zeitgeist the same way artists like Orville Peck have been doing so well lately – pioneering a traditionally macho genre and making it more vulnerable than ever; and more fun. It’s a great sign for country music that someone this queer and this flamboyant can be so successful in the genre – long before Chappell Roan took stage on SNL. His tracks are witty; funny and a natural fit for CMAT – Fly Away a delight. It Gets Better, well, even better – “isn’t that life? Yeah nothing is perfect so go ahead and cry – just to know that you’re alive” – country fans are right at home; the genre crossover between pop and country has never been more apparent. It’s the Euro-Country tour; duh – if you were looking for something poppier you were in the wrong place.
Once CMAT gets on stage – the crowd goes wild. It’s energetic; lively start – Janis Joplining asks how a person can be healthy and handle things well when their work requires them not to, a reckoning with the rise to fame and emotional closeness of a crush that CMAT herself had; and the sheer growth – a longing she won’t act on. It’s a crowd-pleaser; of course many can relate. The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station continues the witty charm that CMAT draws into her crowd and it’s instantly apparent by track two alone, if it wasn’t before you even got to the venue, you’re witnessing one of the best songwriters of this generation.
The bulk of the songs on a 16 song setlist are pulled from Euro-Country but there’s plenty of Crazymad, for Me in there too – CMAT utilising her two albums to full effect. I Don’t Really Care For You and 2 Wrecked 2 Care pull all the back to back punches – and the older songs just get as warm a reception; Where Are Your Kids Tonight? Is a heavy-hitter.
I Wanna Be a Cowboy Baby is saved for the encore where the “very sexy CMAT band” get a chance to sign – the expanded 16 songs get the chance for CMAT to flex her full back catalogue after a somewhat disappointing 12 song setlist in Nottingham. There’s no Lord Let that Tesla Crash (Like Jamie Oliver Petrol Station, it is less about the title than what it suggests) which CMAT herself explains she finds it hard to perform live given its openly personal nature, but you get When a Good Man Cries – a song about her wanting forgiveness for being a bitch in a relationship and projecting her insecurities about love onto him despite the fact that he’s a good man, then feeling guilty for it – letting a past relationship overwhelm a good one – in an openly personal, vulnerable song that feels raw and honest.
Euro-Country – the title track of the second album, allows for a reckoning with CMAT’s country. It’s about how the crash fucked Ireland up and herself up at a young age (“I was 12 when the das started killing themselves all around me”) and the sheer range in depth that’s saved for the encore is palpable here. Her honest reckoning with the country itself is fierce and foreboding – CMAT able to dip into full panto at engaging the audience (“he’s behind you”) – embracing the silliness with the contrast of the main event. Her stage presence should rightly earn her the stardom that the likes of Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter have earned; if anything – she’s leagues ahead of pretty much every recognisable popstar in the world right now.
One thing that CMAT has over the average audience at pop shows is the ability to get the phones down and get the audience to listen – no matter were you were, she forced you to lock in from the word go. Her standout range of her latest album is fearless no matter what the topic she tackles – Take a Sexy Picture of Me shows the hypocritical, worrying nature of the toxic beauty standards that ravage pop culture today. It’s a banger – and by the time Stay for Something wraps up the set; you’re very much on board. She insists that it wasn’t the intention to come up with a hit song; yet Take a Sexy Picture of Me is irresistible – and vitally important; showing to all the doubters it’s more than just a cowboy dance hour although when the cowboy dance hour comes to I Wanna Be a Cowboy, Baby it’s never been more fun. CMAT can rightly feel robbed of winning the Mercury Prize; but is a star only on the rise.
Words by Miles Milton-Jefferies
Photography by Stefania Mohottigt
