The new Simple Carnival album ‘Smitten’ was anything but simple. The critically acclaimed power pop project The Simple Carnival releases its third and unfortunately final album ‘Smitten’ on February 14, 2017 through Sundrift Productions. Seven years in the making, Smitten is eleven tracks of meticulously-crafted power pop bliss. It’s as if Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, Todd Rundgren, Burt Bacharach and The Beach Boys locked themselves in a recording studio for the better part of a decade to see what would happen.
Jeff Boller is the songwriter and the primary musician behind The Simple Carnival. He has become an award winning filmmaker, familiar to those attending the annual L.A. 3-D Movie Festivals and the annual 3D-Con 3D Theater presentations. He is currently creating an animated music video movie based on the Smitten album titled Smitten 3D. The Smitten album CD release includes a special pair of 3D glasses and a 12 page lyric book with 3D stills from the movie. CDs and downloads can be pre-ordered through www.simplecarnival.com. The album will be available on all major streaming and download services.
Smitten is a follow-up to The Simple Carnival’s 2008 full-length album Girls Aliens Food, which was declared “a soft pop masterpiece” (Powerpopaholic,) “STUNNING…HUGELY recommended” (Not Lame) and “one of the all-time great melodic long-players” (Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio.) The Simple Carnival has released two albums and two EPs since 2004, with Boller performing all vocals and playing over 30 instruments in his basement studio. Because of the studio-bound nature of its recordings, The Simple Carnival has never performed live. Although Boller still plays a majority of the instruments on the Smitten album, he has enlisted the talents of several outside musicians this time around. Vocalist Heidi Engel and drummer Chris Belin are prominently featured on the album. Jess and Jeff DeCuir from Hyperbubble, Matt Williams from The Brigadier and Rob Gibson from Mister Fusty all contribute background vocals.