The Cricket’s Orchestra: A Good Start for Meaghan Smith

The music of Canadian songstress Meaghan Smith doesn’t exactly reveal an experimental or groundbreaking new sound. What it is, however, is creative, heartfelt, and much like a trip down musical memory lane.

On her debut album, The Cricket’s Orchestra, Smith’s soulful voice, à la Norah Jones and Diana Krall, immediately takes her listeners back to the music of the 1920s, 30s and 40s, eras of music that, as she affirms on her website, “were pure and simple." The Cricket’s Orchestra is just that: pure and simple, good music.

Musically, Smith brings an orchestral-like arrangement of instruments to broaden and distinguish her sound from the countless other emerging artists in Canada. The Cricket’s Orchestra contains your usual guitar-bass-drum trio as well as clarinet, brass instruments and some jazzy piano licks. Smith also incorporated a mellotron, an omnichord and, in a very un-1930s move, a DJ – Kid Koala, who scratches on the flirtatious A Little Love.

The album is lighthearted, immediate and illustrates the effectiveness of simplicity. “I know what you don’t say… my heart can hear instead what goes unsaid,” croons Smith on I Know, a swinging tune about a beau’s inability to say those three little words.

During If You Asked Me, she acknowledges the struggle between passion and reason: “I know you’re not all mine, 'cause I’ve seen your wandering eyes, still I would not decline if you asked me…”

Tracks like Drifted Apart and A Piece For You are well-written and introspective songs that showcase a more emotional aspect of Smith’s otherwise bouncy, optimistic and straightforward album.

This album is a great starting platform for an artist who is unarguably talented. As much as I enjoyed the catchiness of The Cricket’s Orchestra, it isn’t a mind blowingly amazing recording. I felt almost as though Smith follows the same formula of swinging tempo, and jazzy melody for each song, and didn’t take too many risks with her music.

Only a second release, will tell if Smith is able to break the mold and create something that is truly unique.