The Brighton Port Authority

I Think We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat (Southern Fried)

By Aiden Landman
Published: February 10th, 2009 | 9:00am

It is hard to know what to make of I Think We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat, the first offering from the Norman Cook–led Brighton Port Authority. It isn't a confusing record. It simply exists in the realm of mediocrity: a few peaks, some valleys, a lot of plains. Listening to I Think We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat is like driving through Nebraska — you pretty much know what you're going to get.

The record — by utilizing a fictional back story relying heavily on its own metaphysics — heightens expectations that the BPA are something special, conceptual, full of ideas and creativity. Instead, the group relies on similarities in track selection and style. A cursory glance through the track listing reveals nearly every song that is worth listening to and which ones to skip over. Iggy Pop, Pete York, and Martha Wainwright all do right by themselves on the record. Their contributions are far above the average Brit-poppy fare constituting most of Bigger Boat. Pop melds the Monochrome Set's post-punk classic, “He's Frank,” into sunshine surf rock. York snarls his way over massive drums and distorted bass on “Dirty Sheets.” Wainwright shows a great understanding of the tenets of reggae on “Spade.”

The record's highlight, though, is the David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal collaboration, “Toe Jam.” The song — equal parts grime, Roy Orbison, and reggae — has been on the radar since the summer of 2008 due to an imaginative video complete with naked people, censor bars, and the shapes that can be made by the former with the latter.

The rest of Bigger Boat is completely take it or leave it. Listen for the tracks you like and buy the singles.

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