‘Have Fun!’: CMAT’s most beautiful song
Everyone seems to have their own CMAT story. Mine is that a friend wouldn’t stop pestering me, begging me to listen to this new musical protégé who is going to take the world by storm. That night, walking home from the pub, I put on her debut album If My Wife New I’d Be Dead, and have been a fan ever since.
CMAT was doing well when she released that debut album, but her career has gone from strength to strength ever since. She admitted to a leap in her fan following after delivering a stellar performance on The Graham Norton Show. It seems that every time she is given the chance to perform in front of the masses, she climbs one more step on the ladder, winning people over with charm, talent, and most importantly, some excellent songs.
The most recent example of this is her Glastonbury Pyramid Stage performance. Following that gig, I had family members at the show telling me they should have started listening to this singer I’ve been telling them to listen to for years, a lot earlier. I also had friends watching from home, messaging me the same thing. With a few songs already released from her new upcoming album, it appears we’re in the running to see the career of CMAT go once again from strength to strength, as her ability as a writer, musician, and performer continues to know no bounds.
As desperate as I am to be perceived as remotely cool and underground, with the resilient rise to fame that CMAT has been experiencing, and as the altar at which we adoring fans worship grows more crowded, it’s hard to be anything other than happy at this continued success. Firstly, because CMAT is an artist you can’t help but root for, and secondly, because her music is too good, moving and powerful to be gatekept. This is music made for the masses, and so when the masses come aboard, it would be rude to do anything other than welcome them with open arms.
So, what is it about CMAT’s music that people continue to find endearing? There are, no doubt, plenty of different factors that play a part, but if you wanted my guess, I would say the versatility with which she sings is reflective of most of our inner monologues.
In just one of her albums, you will find themes of heartbreak, sadness and existentialism, alongside joy, love and humour. She both loves herself and can be self-deprecating within the same sentence, which I imagine is common across the board if you were to pick apart our brains. She is an honest reflection of those who listen to her, the good times and the bad times, and how can you be anything other than drawn in by someone who seems to understand you so deeply?
What do we listen to music for if not to have a connection established through sound? We live the majority of our lives in our own heads, so when you have an artist who can mimic what it’s like in that environment so wonderfully, and when that artist receives recognition from the masses, their music, in essence, makes the world a less lonely place.
I am writing here as if this all comes from a place of joy, but it doesn’t, and CMAT understands this. Some of her songs are the most heartbreaking pieces of music ever written, and as such, that connection she is establishing with her listeners isn’t always a happy one, but it remains one of understanding and compassion.
Equally, the way she performs is incredibly fun, as she acknowledges some of the problems she may have had that lie at the heart of these songs but also acknowledges music as a beautiful form of escapism, something she can use as a marker to see how far she’s come in enjoying life for all of its ups and downs.
With that, choosing the most beautiful CMAT songs is a near-impossible task. The amount of different emotions she touches upon throughout her music means the word “beautiful” takes on a range of different forms, and each of those forms is equally valid and well-discussed. However, at the heart of everything, even her saddest songs, is an element of fun, and I would say fun encapsulates the essence of CMAT more than any other descriptor. Therefore, her song in which she specifically instructs the listener to lean into this side of her, in this writer’s opinion, has to be considered one of her greatest.
‘Have Fun!’ was released on CMAT’s second album, Crazymad, for Me, and has since become a staple of hers. The whole track has a jovial feel to it, with a running piano providing the perfect backdrop for her always faultless lyricism.
Throughout the song, she talks about a breakup, regretting some of the decisions she made during the relationship. The chorus feels like it has a double meaning, as she tells the subject of this breakup to “have fun”, ridding herself of the problems that the person brought. Equally, it could work as an instruction to herself, as she tries to rid herself of the issues that came with this relationship and instead focus on enjoying the present.
If not with the repeated instruction of “have fun” in the chorus, the theme of the track is perfectly personified with the lines, “I gave you all I had cause I believed in nests, silly bitch, you should have spent that on yourself”.
This song plays into my previous point about how even when CMAT is singing sad songs, there is an element of fun injected into them. It’s an audible wink to the listener, saying, “That sucked, but music is good, so let’s just enjoy that instead”. ‘Have Fun!’ is arguably the song that tells the listener to do this the most directly, and therefore stands out as one of her most poignant.
The track is a dance-filled, humorous number which acts as a release rather than just a song. When you see it live, and you see CMAT and her fans waving their arms and shaking their hands, that is them exuding frustration and enjoying the fun and comfort that can come from loving music. Her versatility and understanding mean it’s impossible for her to have a “most beautiful” song, but ‘Have Fun!’ is as good an option as any.
