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| The Cricket's Orchestra |
| Meaghan Smith |
első megjelenés éve: 2010
38 perc |
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| (2010)
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CD |
| 3.700 Ft
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| 1. | Heartbroken
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| 2. | I Know
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| 3. | If You Asked Me
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| 4. | A Little Love
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| 5. | Poor
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| 6. | Drifted Apart
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| 7. | Take Me Dancing
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| 8. | A Piece for You
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| 9. | Soft Touch
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| 10. | You Got Out
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| 11. | 5 More Minutes
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Jazz
Adam King Editing
Andre Wahl Mixing
Anna Tes Design
Ari Martin Management
Chris Potter Mastering
Coleen Novak Management
Darren Van Niekerk Engineer
Ellen Wakayama Art Direction
Emile Kelman Engineer
Ivy Skoff Production Coordination
Jason Wormer Pro-Tools, Engineer
Jennifer Tzar Photography
Jeremy Darby Engineer
Jessica Mitchell Assistant
Les Cooper Engineer, Producer
Matt Taylor Design
Paul Ackling Equipment Technician, Guitar Technician
Sam Ibbett Vocal Engineer, Assistant Engineer
Terry McBride Management
The Cricket's Orchestra, the full-length debut album from acclaimed Canadian musician Meaghan Smith, is the follow-up to Smith's highly acclaimed 2008 EP The Cricket's Quartet, which The Washington Post declared as ''...one of the best finds of late '08.''
The 11-track album was written in Smith's home of Halifax, Nova Scotia and was recorded in Toronto with help from producer Les Cooper. Greg Kurstin (Lily Allen, Flaming Lips) also collaborated with Smith on the record, producing the lead track ''Heartbroken.'' The child of a piano-teacher mother and a bass-playing father, Smith devoured old musicals and animated films as a child and later fell in love with the jazz and big-band music of the '20s, '30s and '40s. Those early inspirations influenced the material featured on the album, as Smith says, ''My music is modern vintage. The record incorporates a lot of instrumentation from older eras in the form of horns, strings and arrangements, but I also love DJs and their turntables.'' These modern influences are reflected on the record through the use of turntables, omnichords, melotrons and optigons.
Smith has already found success in the area of film and television her rendition of the Pixies classic ''Here Comes Your Man'' (produced by T-Bone Burnett) was recently featured on the acclaimed film ''(500) Days of Summer.'' Additionally, two original songs from the record, ''A Piece For You'' and ''5 More Minutes,'' have been included in episodes of ''One Tree Hill'' and ''Grey's Anatomy.''
Smith has joined many legendary and acclaimed musicians on the road including k.d. lang, Sarah McLachlan, Eric Hutchinson, Chantal Kreviazuk, Ron Sexsmith and Joe Purdy. Subsequent to the release of The Cricket's Orchestra, Smith will join world-renowned artists including Sarah McLachlan, Cat Power and Norah Jones as part of the 2010 Lilith Fair line-up.
As the first decade of the 21st century headed toward a close and sales of recorded music continued to decline, the major record labels became increasingly selective about what new artists they would sign. So, it's worth asking what would induce one of them (in this case, the Sire imprint of Warner Music) to take on a modestly talented, rather precious young singer/songwriter from Nova Scotia named Meaghan Smith. But the answer is obvious upon listening to her debut full-length album, The Cricket's Orchestra, which incorporates all four songs from her debut EP The Cricket's Quartet. One of the things about major record labels that makes them so bad at picking new talent is that the best they can do is choose something that they think sounds enough like something that's already successful, and Sire/Warner obviously hopes it has run into the next Norah Jones with Smith. (Conversely, it also must be hoping that, unlike another major, Sony's Columbia Records, it has not run into another troublemaker like Nellie McKay, to take another example of an artist of the same type.)
From the sound of her music, Smith spent her years growing up in Canada listening to some combination of old Joni Mitchell albums and old 78s from the '20s; occasionally, she may have tried applying a hip-hopper's scratch technique to those records. Basically, she's your standard acoustic-guitar- or piano-playing sensitive singer/songwriter, with a baby-doll voice reminiscent of Leigh Nash, formerly of Sixpence None the Richer. But producer Les Cooper has tricked out her songs with gimmicky arrangements to get some of that Norah Jones adult pop/vaguely jazzy feel. (Indeed, some attempt apparently is being made to sell Smith as a "jazz" artist; she is no such thing.) "If You Asked Me" has a big-band arrangement and a vibraphone solo; "Soft Touch" boasts an accordion and strings; "You Got Out" is relaxed rockabilly in the manner of early k.d. lang. And so on. But repeatedly, Smith sings wistful ballads in a slightly detached way over simple piano chords as her producer tries to repeat the formula of Jones' Grammy-winning hit "Don't Know Why." It doesn't really work, and it wouldn't be to Smith's credit if it did. This young artist may turn out to have more ability than she demonstrates on this derivative debut. Maybe next time she'll try sounding more like herself. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
Meaghan Smith
Active Decade: '00s
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Contemporary Jazz, Contemporary Singer/Songwriter, Vocal Jazz
The daughter of a two musicians, Canadian singer/songwriter Meaghan Smith grew up listening to a variety of older genres of music (jazz and swing chief among them) as well as contemporary sounds, which helped fuel her own eclectic compositions. Her debut EP, 2008's The Cricket's Quartet, found the songwriter embracing everything from jazzy torch songs to elements of hip-hop, and she promoted the disc while touring alongside k.d. lang in 2009. That same year, she placed songs on the TV shows One Tree Hill and Grey's Anatomy and worked with T Bone Burnett on a cover of the Pixies' "Here Comes Your Man," which wound up on the soundtrack to the film (500) Days of Summer. All that activity led up to the release of her debut album, The Cricket's Orchestra, which arrived in October 2009 on Sire Records.
---William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide |
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