[01] We Cry[02] Before The Worst
[03] Talk You Down
[04] Man Who Can’t Be Moved
[05] Breakeven
[06] Rusty Halo
[07] The End Where I Begin
[08] Fall For Anything
[09] If You See Kay
[10] I’m Yours
[11] Anybody There
amg: When the roof fell in on the boy band scene, crushing young Westlife knock-offs Mytown in the process, Dubliners Danny O'Donoghue and Mark Sheehan high-tailed it to L.A. to engineer for the likes of Teddy Riley, the Neptunes, and Rodney Jerkins. Formed with the addition of drummer Glen Power, three-piece band the Script may have become an overnight success in the U.K. and Ireland with their debut single "We Cry," but their self-titled album bears the imprint of their internship in California, a meticulously and well-scripted (excuse the pun) blend of smooth soul and radio rock in the mould of Maroon 5 and OneRepublic. (Indeed, they share much in common with the latter band, having both worked with Timbaland in the past.) The singles "We Cry" and "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" are obvious highlights, the former a catalog of hard luck stories — single mothers, drug-addled rock stars, the usual suspects — set to the tune of moody jazz guitar chords and lavish strings. "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" calls to mind the soul-infused modern rock of John Legend, while "Talk You Down" sees O'Donoghue talk a friend down from the brink of suicide in the style of Daniel Bedingfield. The highlights come fast and early — though "Before the Worst" borrows a little too much from Coldplay's "Speed of Sound" for comfort — and by the time the sterile boy band imitations "I'm Yours" and "If You See Kay" (essentially a rewrite of "We Cry") roll around, the Script has exhausted its songwriting well twice over.
(amg 5/10)
