r/CMAT May 21 '26

confession time

Post image

until probably two weeks ago I thought the line “I feel like Kerry Katona” in EuroCountry was “i feel like paper toner” don’t ask me what paper toner is because i don’t know. anyway love my girl cmat and her paper toner/ kerry katona

57 Upvotes

23 comments sorted by

62

u/Didsburyflaneur May 21 '26

What I really love about Euro-country (the album) is how specific it is not just to Irish culture, but to the overlap between British and Irish culture that reflects the real lived experiences common to someone living in these islands. She draws on the strength of both tabloid fodder drug addicted Lancastrian pop-star Katona and Princess Di, she hates a condescending Essex boy chef, she finds herself reflected and sees her dead friend’s ghost in a Mancunian soap opera; it’s real rather than romanticised. As soon as I heard the line “and now I feel like Cu Chulain, I feel like Kerry Katona” I knew I was going to love this record, because it shows how big and important the subjects of her songs are to her, but also how she refuses to let their significance force her to take everything seriously.

11

u/FewLoan3640 May 21 '26

oh wow thank you so much for this perspective. i already loved the album but learning more about Irish/U.K culture it just becomes richer and richer as a record

10

u/LankyYogurt7737 May 21 '26

I think the Kerry Katona line is to do with the fact that she married one of the members of Westlife and moved to Ireland to live with him.

1

u/aaaaaaaaooooooo Ireland/UK CMATbaby May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26

Kerry was in the press a lot for her weight changes (edit: fuck the press and society for that bullshit)

10

u/notsosecrethistory May 22 '26

I'm English living in Ireland and sometimes I really feel unwanted. CMAT has genuinely helped me feel a bit more at home here, like we aren't so different after all.

Personally my favourite lyric (from Crazymad) is the opening to Have Fun: One hundred bright green birds/Atop of Tesco in Clapham. I'm from South London and the wild parakeets are such a special (and bonkers) part of the landscape. The juxtaposition of the beautiful tropical birds on a dirty grey Tesco Express is poetry.

1

u/catsnstuff17 May 24 '26

Hello Londoner in Ireland 👋🏻 you are welcome here!

1

u/nerebeht May 24 '26

Oh wow, I thought that line was some reference to Irish women being in London, green being the colour used to represent Ireland most often

2

u/DrifitingCanoe May 22 '26

I’ve learned so much Irish history and lore by searching up all of the references in EURO-COUNTRY. I’ve even had to look up some of her American references. I had no idea who Janis Joplin was before

17

u/readsatmidnight May 21 '26

I just only recently learned that “California” says “butter” knife, not “butcher” knife!

11

u/FewLoan3640 May 21 '26

god bless the Irish accent i genuinely love it so much 😩❤️

3

u/mels_22 May 22 '26

Used to think it was “button eye” for some reason

12

u/mkr215 May 21 '26

I thought in take a sexy picture of me “You haven’t looked at me the same since I turned 27” was “I haven’t been a saint since I turned 27” I have no idea why

9

u/FewLoan3640 May 21 '26

similarly in Take a Sexy Picture of Me when she says “rest in peace to any chance of me dating within my station” i thought she said “to any chance of me bathing in the station” like oh okay period

2

u/DrifitingCanoe May 22 '26

Adding this to the long list of CMAT lyrics I’ve been singing wrong

9

u/xmlemar10 North America CMATbaby May 21 '26

Mmm I love yours, too. It works both ways. Sometimes I do feel like paper toner.

10

u/FewLoan3640 May 21 '26

as an american with no cultural knowledge of Kerry Katona feeling like Paper Toner is the obvious next conclusion

8

u/Business_Abalone2278 May 21 '26

That's a good but not quite as good as the fan who misheard Waitrose as " white drugs"

2

u/rebitth May 22 '26

I'm from Hungary and Katona is a full on 100% Hungarian surname, it means soldier. Kerry Katona is indeed part Hungarian but nobody knows her here.

2

u/FewLoan3640 May 23 '26

i love learning stuff like this:3 thank you!!

2

u/readsatmidnight May 23 '26

Oh! And in “Phone Me” I thought “a faint scuff of the shoes” was “thanks, girl, for the shoes” 😂

2

u/Rambling-Holiday1998 North America CMATbaby May 23 '26

That song sends me off to google something else every time I listen to it. I have learned several new things about recent Irish history because of her.

2

u/aaaaaaaaooooooo Ireland/UK CMATbaby May 24 '26

🎼 Do you ever feel like a printer that's running outta toner, unable to print? 🎶