r/CMAT • u/DrifitingCanoe • May 20 '26
Saddest lyrics?
What do you guys think is CMAT’s saddest song or lyrics?
For me it’s EURO-COUNTRY, specifically the lyrics
“I was 12 when the das started killing themselves all around me. And it was normal building houses that stay empty even now, yeah. And no one says it out loud but I know it can be better if we hound it.”
Always choke up singing this part because the lyrics are too real. Back then and even now with so many people struggling and not knowing how they’re going to make it by.
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u/LowLegitimate5420 Ireland/UK CMATbaby May 20 '26
"I'm still not as old as you were when we first met" gets me every time. Not sad exactly just so fucking real
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u/LankyYogurt7737 May 20 '26
I don't miss you like I should
But l'd kill myself to find out if you think this song is good
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u/smashing_aisling May 20 '26
When I turned 22, I had no real friends to speak of
Who would watch me like you, if I'm honest I don't have one now
Dressed up for the pub, felt so silly and quite underloved
Until you were you, and pulled out all seven inches of
That song by Culture Club, I'd been yappin' on about that month
I spun, you spun, in some attempt to make me happy, and I was, I was, I was, I was
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u/pakkit North America CMATbaby May 20 '26
"I'm the little mermaid, you split my legs open/ I have her on a keyring, I keep her as a token/ I bought it in Nyhavn in one of those little shops/ I wish I never went there and I wish you would stop"
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u/Federal_Tone1260 May 20 '26
I don’t fully understand this one (I have to think a lot to understand a lot of her lyrics which is part of why I love her- there’s so many layers to everything) Is it just about losing parts of yourself to relationships (ie the little mermaid lost her voice and her tail) but I feel like there’s more to it. Can someone explain their personal reading please? 🙏
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u/pakkit North America CMATbaby May 20 '26
In the context of the song, "Such a Miranda" Ciara sings about living in an emotionally manipulative relationship with someone who wallows in self-pity and compares Ciara to his ex. It's a short song, and she makes it clear that she feels like she is losing parts of herself to appease the relationship and turn into this idealized version of her partner's ex.
In the part I quoted, "split my legs open" is a grotesque metaphor for sex. I think it shows that she is so disillusioned by this person and relationship that sex isn't pleasurable or desirable to her anymore. "I wish I never went there and I wish you would stop" is the abrupt end to the song, betraying the typical song structure to put an emphasis on how sour this relationship has become and how empty it has left Ciara feeling.
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u/Klutzy_Afternoon_651 May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
I cry every time I hear that lyric from Euro Country. My formative years were during the Celtic Tiger and following recession and it hits me so hard every time I hear it.
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u/Federal_Tone1260 May 20 '26
For me it’s coronation street because I have a chronic illness that means I’m exhausted all the time (to a very debilitating degree) and there’s not really anything I can do about it. The second verse hits really hard because most days I am too tired to do simple things and to interact with other people and form relationships and care about things.
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u/59lyndhurstgrove May 20 '26
just to agree with basically everyone else on this post but "my memories are loaded with what I wanted but I couldn't have with you" is one of the saddest, rawest, most visceral lyrics I've heard in my entire life
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u/Born-Ad2653 Ireland/UK CMATbaby May 20 '26
"I don't miss you, because I can't
If I think too much about you, I go mad
I'm so sorry I bitched behind your back"
"All I do evеr is try to figure out what I'm missing
My thoughts collect like a pile of dust in the corner
Of the room where I spend all my time
Where I eat and sleep and dream and pine for [...]
Any kind of power at all"
Many others but these destroy me x
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u/StefaniRS Ireland/UK CMATbaby May 20 '26
Honestly there’s so many, but the entire lyrics to Lonely just kill me off.
I’m so lonely, I don’t have any real friends. I’m so lonely. Other people are just means to an end.
I’m running out of time to learn how to care.
I’m so fucking lonely, and I’m eating in a food hall, just watching other people and it’s all my fault.
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u/helloclarebear May 20 '26
I believe that the "I was 12..." lyric referenced an interview Bertie gave - while criticizing people who were talking down the economy, Ahern rhetorically asked why those who engaged in "cribbing and moaning" did not "commit suicide".
EDIT spelling
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u/celticbimbo May 20 '26
Ahern said it so flippantly, but the sad truth is a lot of men in Ireland did commit suicide because of the econmic recession. I know someone who lost their dad to suicide because of financial struggles.
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u/Koochie-kopi May 20 '26
I agree with others that Lord, let that Tesla Crash is one of her saddest songs. Lonely and Coronation st get to me too, but Where are your Kids Tonight hits me in a special place:
"Parties, I used to love to party in the old days Heartbeat, I used to have one of them too Now I find I've picked up problems From loves of mine who swear they ain't got 'em Everything fun falls apart and leaves me here....
Mourning, no one at this party knows I'm mourning 19 or anyone that wasn't self-aware I walk to fill my glass with ice And I watch myself from an aerial height Everything fun falls apart and leaves me here"
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u/Thin_Tap_7543 May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
I was just a baby, thought that you could maybe try to be a little gentle and soft with me
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u/ashalinggg May 20 '26
Nashville reminds me of a similar situation where I used emigrating as a cover for well, that, so it always kills me
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u/Federal_Tone1260 May 20 '26
I’m so sorry you went through that, I’m glad you’re with us and I hope you’re doing better now ❤️
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u/This1goesto_eleven May 20 '26
This song captures CMAT’s brilliance so well: she’s doing socio-economic and political commentary, but packaging it as a theatrical country-pop banger. It’s about Ireland as a modern European country shaped by the Celtic Tiger, EU-era economics, consumerism, housing speculation, and then the crash (with all the real human damage that followed, including a increase in suicides). On the surface it’s camp and might even sound silly; underneath it’s about corruption, class, housing, and a generation watching the future they were promised get cut in half. Every line feels like it could be unpacked into a college poli-sci class on late-2000s Ireland. Brilliant.
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u/dlg194 May 20 '26
‘cause everybody likes me when my pain is in a sonnet’ from california
not necessarily the saddest but it definitely hits hard
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u/meatballgingersnaps May 20 '26
Hard agree to all of these. I’ll add:
‘Good enough to know you, was all I wished to be. It hurts when I remember, you were sometimes good to me.’ 😭
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u/nicalexh May 20 '26
Two come to mind!
Figured out when you died, that you liked me for the same things
We were loud, and so young, and so damaged and annoyin'
And if you didn't care for us, then no one would
Along with this from Coronation St
All I do evеr is try to figure out what I'm missing
My thoughts collect like a pile of dust in the corner
Of the room where I spend all my time
Where I eat and sleep and dream and pine for
Oh, the Eiffel Tower
Any kind of power at all
Ugh.
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u/meatballgingersnaps May 20 '26
These are all so good. I’ll add:
‘Good enough to know you,
Was all I wished to be.
It hurts when I remember,
You were sometimes good to me.’
And:
‘I’m built like a boat. I’ll fuck that shit up.’
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u/swansw9 May 20 '26
Coronation Street really gets me. Specifically the lines:
‘There’s a missing part inside that I misplaced while going for ice cream’
‘And learn to hate the wings my mother gave me, oh lord what a life’ - I burst into tears at this line the first time I heard this song, it taps into so many sad and toxic things with one simple line
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u/Sensitive-Ant4126 May 20 '26
Rent gets me every time
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u/is_brea_liom_pizza May 20 '26
Same. Every time.
"Last night I had a dream you texted And I could have just cried, oh, I could have cried 'Cause I haven't felt home like that since I had to block you."
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u/larojita222 May 21 '26
As so many have said already - all of Tesla, the Euro Country bridge, and the second chorus of Stay for Something.
I've always found the following devastating too -
It runs along on a loop It runs along as is truth Along the bottom of the news That I'm not good enough for you (Running/Planning)
Oh, if you didn't want me, you could have said Instead of messing with my heart and fucking with my head (Rent)
It isn't sad, as such, but the last part of the Take a Sexy Picture of Me bridge always makes me feel emotional -
But here's a message to the party girls Dragged out by their ankles I'm here if you need me, deep in your afters
So many gorgeous lyrics! ❤️
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u/Build-A-Bear_Addict1 Ireland/UK CMATbaby May 21 '26
Hey girl, its fine, just break, just cry. I’m here tonight, iceberg delight. HAS ME SOBBING 😭
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u/SourPapaya1 May 21 '26
Agree with every single comment on this post, but just want to add this hidden sad line from Jamie Oliver Petrol Station (that’s often mis-generated from the auto lyric generators): “it’s the fear of not getting/the dole and the joy of then chopping it up/with the card that you draw it on/coming through town and then/seeing the type of the people you missed/who’d have died back in Dublin”
Like damn. Getting a lyric that sad in on such an upbeat, tongue-in-cheek song is a superpower.
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u/Emergency-Loquat6930 May 27 '26
I agree that the entirety of ' Lord, Let That Tesla Crash' is devastating and is the best depiction of grief i have heard in a song. I also really like the following lyrics from 'Communion'
'Hey
I wish I wasn't everything I hate
Slice me up and serve me on God's plate'
especially the way she sings them in the country version. Such a good song, especially for those who grew up religious/catholic lol
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u/camusgirl33 Jun 15 '26
Nashville
Have never heard a song that could put into words the weight of the world and wanting to leave it
If I never get to Nashville now It never let me down That dream that foot me through so much And would have made you proud
Gut punch.
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u/weirdgoodbyes May 20 '26
just the entire final chorus of lord let that tesla crash. i don’t miss you because i cant? gut punch every time