Ah, the great smell of Bisto! Gravy? What has music to do with gravy? I’ll tell you. You see, gravy is the finishing touch to a meal – or a meal of meat anyway – and Roy Toller & Sporting Hero have created an album that has been carefully crafted all the way up to and including the great smell of Bisto.
There’s plenty of meat on those musical bones too with the kind of 21 day matured song writing that would bear comparison with your more mature pop aristocrats like Nick Lowe. A wry humour pervades the lyrics and, indeed, escapes into the production with Monica Queen’s Suzi Jane Hokum style contribution to "All The World" standing right amongst the chef’s selection of seasonal vegetables. Even the enforced Americana – it is the fashion after all – of "Golden Grey" seems more of an affectionate pastiche than a deliberate attempt to walk the tried and trusted dustbowl road to revisionist success.
Talking of Nick Lowe, you would wonder if "Pop Music Bores" had instead come from the pen of said scribe than the Belle and Sebastian associated Mr Moller while the laconic charm of the title track "The Singing’s Getting Better" is similarly hard to deny.
Maturity shines through the songs of "The Singing’s Getting Better" and that makes for rather more listening enjoyment than you might otherwise would have expected. You won’t be leaving anything on your plate after listening to this one.