The BPA - I Think We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat

One thing that’s important to remember before this review gets underway, is that this is not Fatboy Slim. This is The BPA, Norman Cook’s new project, and it’s in a whole new league of cool. While this album may not seem to contain surefire dancefloor hits like Fatboy’s ‘Weapon Of Choice’ and ‘Slash Dot Dash’, but what it lacks in party vibe, it makes up for in pure class.

This groove-laden album is made by it’s guest appearances. Wether it be Emmy The Great’s soothing vocals floating over the top of ‘Seattle’, or Dizzee Rascal’s totally out of place, but at the same time brilliant, rapping over the top of ‘Toe Jam’, this album just wouldn’t be the same without it’s star (and not-so-star, but just as good) names.

However, it is not these multiple guest appearances that cause the main flaw of the album, it is surprisingly Norman Cook’s melodies. Too often on this album they do not nearly do the song or the singer justice. Occasionally he gets it right, like the stylish, yet perfectly surreal ‘Jumps The Fence’, which suddenly bursts into some bizarre out of tune brass halfway through the song. But alot of the time it just doesn’t work nearly as well as it could, like on ‘Dirty Sheets’, featuring a sleezy bassline and some lazy drumwork that just ruins what could’ve been a great song.

There are just too many of these missed opportunities on this album to make it the truly cool, wierd classic it could’ve been. All is not lost though, and when the album hits it’s stride, it can really pull a fantastic tune out the bag. ‘Island’, the afformentioned ‘Seattle’, and album closer ‘So It Goes’ are all examples of the chilled-out, beautiful vibe that this album clearly does best, it’s just a pity the rest of the album couldn’t match the heights of these songs.

So overall, ‘I Think We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat’ (we’re overlooking that corny title, by the way), has moments of brilliance, but thanks to Norman Cook’s dodgy backing, is far too patchy to be worth the sum of it’s parts.