Simple Carnival's
lone Jeff Boller sports a massive hard-on for The Beach
Boys and I'm not even kidding, although my phallic inspections
are, admittedly, purely figurative. On Girls Aliens Food,
Boller self-admittedly pops (not rocks) through eleven shimmering
tunes, and at its best moments, one does not even perceive the
limitations of a one man (+ studio) band. I'm speaking, of course,
about the jubilant ba-bas of "Really Really Weird," the loungey
ba-da-das of "Flirt," and the slippery "you-you-yous" of dazzling
"You Jump First." The instrumentation is effective though
often simple, with
plenty of chintzy synths, bouncy basslines, springy guitars, and
allegedly a few self-constructed instruments, but it's Boller's
ample, multi-layered vocal range which takes centre stage. There's even a blissful
a capella piece, which lives up to its name -- "Nothing Will Ever
Be As Good" -- as the record's indubitable high point, a sublime and
dynamic three minutes of perfectly overdubbed auto-harmony.
Miscalculations are rare
on Girls Aliens Food, though flat "Keeping it Quiet" and bossa nova
zzz-zzz-er "Over Coffee and Tea" lack the taut hooks of the rest of
the album. In addition, the album's home-production, though
quite acceptable, occasionally lacks the warmth and fullness
of more professional (and expensive) recording set-ups; blank
baseboards of silence support many of the songs, revealing a flat
foundation during the disc's more spasmodic bits. Still, I don't
want to revel in this record's rough spots, because Girls Aliens
Food is, by and large, a fundamentally excellent (and eternally
infectious) bit of sunny power-pop. Boller has amply rewarded my dip
into the long-overdue review bin.