Dance floor master returns

Not many people have heard of the BPA. The seemingly unknown group has sprung out of nowhere with an incredible debut, "I Think We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat," and an even more incredible list of collaborators. Still it begs the question: Who are the BPA? The liner notes are not any help. The notes, largely a fabricated story, meander through the legend of a pair of artists that performed in the '70s and then broke up without releasing a single piece of music. They were never superstars, or were they? The duo behind these productions are named as Norman Cook and Simon Thornton. Huh? That first name sounds familiar. Isn't he the guy that wrote that song that had a woman singing over and over again "I have to praise you like I should"? Or that other one with Christopher Walken dancing all over in the video? Hey, wasn't that Fatboy Slim? So that's why the songs, a fun, fast moving group of beat based singles, sound so good and instantly familiar to the listener - Norman Cook has been making instantly legendary dance music for the better part of a quarter of a century. These songs in particular range from dance floor filling fodder in "Toe Jam (With Byrne and Rascal)" and "He's Frank (With Iggy Pop)" to more introspective yet equally danceable fair in "Seattle (With Emmy The Great) and "So It Goes (With Olly Hite)." While each song has its personal value and shows a lot of difference to Fatboy Slim's sometimes quickly moving albums, it almost feels as if this album was designed as a set of singles instead of a single cohesive album. Sometimes though, this is the way that good pop music works: as a whole the album is a little disconnected and dysfunctional, but single by single the album can be considered stellar, and in this single consuming society that we live in, maybe this is the best album that we can look forward to. The BPA's debut, "I Think We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat," is out now digitally on Southern Fried Records.