Seven years in the making, The Simple Carnival’s third (and final) album 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, songwriter and the primary musician behind The Simple Carnival, is also an award-winning filmmaker. He is currently creating an animated "music video movie" based on the Smitten album, titled Smitten 3D. Included with the CD is an exclusive 3D viewer and a 12-page lyric booklet containing 3D images from the (still-in-production) Smitten 3D movie. Smitten is the follow-up to The Simple Carnival's 2008's 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 the 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. ### WHAT OTHERS SAY "YAY! Looks like good music is coming back!" -Margo Guryan "Catchy, sweet, tender, quirky, and sung with unbelievable charm. One of this summer's 'hits'. (One of mine, anyway.)" -Louis Philippe "OMG! I just checked out some of your music and the “Smitten” music video is... AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" -Spookey Ruben "A Nilsson for the modern generation." -Russell's Reviews "If Brian Wilson had a nice dad, this is the kind of music he would have made!" -Roctober