Girls Alien Food
(Sundrift Records)
Reviewed by Vivian Hua
Tagged 2008 indie pop indie rock pop rock powerpop sundrift records the simple carnival
Upon first receiving the The Simple Carnival's
Girls Alien Food in the mail, what set the album apart (not necessarily in a good way) from other albums was the packaging. It came in a metal tin, with simple cartoon drawings.
After listening to
Girls Alien Food, what sets the album apart is the beauty in its simplicity. While so many bands are trying to redefine the wheel and create music that is more and more standalone, Jeff Boller of the The Simple Carnival is just trying to make universally good pop music. He succeeds in making tracks that are catchy enough to not be annoying, taking more cues from older pop stars like the Beach Boys than modern pop stars like Paramore.
For starters, "Really Really Weird" relies on slight vocal manipulation with very basic melodies and slightly silly, nostalgia-inducing lyrics. "Keeping It Quiet" is a beach-side jam suitable for a new school Mr. Rogers.
The peak of the album comes at the middle of the album. "Flirt" is a blend of jazz piano, scat vocals, and finger-snapping rhythms so catchy that for the first week I heard the disk, I would consistently wake up dying to hear that track. It was an impossible task to get the line, "Ooh, you flirt/ You gonna get me hurt," out of my head.
The rest of the album continues to cycles through various forms of relatively easy-listening fare updated for the modern age. This includes an acapella track and nearly elevator music type fare. Nonetheless, none of the tracks sound similar to one another, even though they all have a similar laid-back vibe.
Girls Alien Food is the type of album that pop lovers of all ages, even grandma, would probably enjoy. It manages to utilize vital, timeless pop elements mixed with modern technology and vocal manipulation to create tracks that seem to feel at home with any generation.
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