The BPA, Fatboy Slim’s latest masterpiece

The BPA (Brighton Port Authority)
I Think We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat
(Southern Fried)
The Brighton Port Authority is a moniker for Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim, and a horde of his fave featured artists. The BPA’s fun and rhythm-heavy I Think We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat is clad with various forms of percussion, bass, synths, guitars, and some friendly distortion thrown in for good measure and it’s as good as Cook’s classic You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby. The track ‘Superman’  is smoothly delivered and certainly the best song about the last son of Krypton in a while; ‘Seattle’ is an optimistic homage to the States. Among vocal appearances by Iggy Pop, David Byrne, Dizzee Rascal, and Emmy the Great, Cook’s dependable musical formulas are always apparent. It’s the sort of album I’d entrust to the 10-year-old daughter that I don’t have as an introduction to experimental pop rock. I’ll definitely keep it readily on hand for the occasion. [Whitney Dwire]