The Script - The User’s Guide To Being Human

Man in the Arena; The Crowd Was Singing Wonderwall; Scars Align; The User’s Guide to Being Human; After We’re Gone; Living Our Life Without Me; I’m 100 Different People; Years; Alive; Grow Old With Grace; One Team for Life

(BMG)

The Script has never been shy about wearing their hearts on their sleeves, but The User’s Guide To Being Human feels like the Dublin band have ripped the sleeves off altogether.

Their eighth studio album arrives after a period of profound change, with Danny O’Donoghue confronting grief, personal growth and the uncomfortable business of figuring out what really matters. The album follows 2024’s Satellites and represents another step into a new chapter for the band.

There is something fittingly direct about the album’s title. This is essentially a collection of songs about being flawed, getting things wrong, surviving disappointment and trying to find some meaning in the mess. O’Donoghue has described the record as a reflection of the full spectrum of emotions that make us human, and that emotional openness is its defining characteristic.

Opening with Man In The Arena, The Script immediately reaches for the rafters. Built around pounding drums, a muscular groove and one of those enormous choruses the band could seemingly write in their sleep, it is classic arena-pop-rock: polished, uplifting and engineered to have thousands of people singing back at O’Donoghue. It is also one of the album’s strongest moments, balancing determination with vulnerability.

The Crowd Was Singing Wonderwall takes a more conversational route, while Scars Align is one of the record’s more affecting songs. There is an appealing maturity in the way O’Donoghue approaches hurt here. Rather than simply wallowing in it, he seems interested in what happens afterwards — how people carry their scars and whether those experiences ultimately make us stronger.

The title track is more adventurous, with O’Donoghue occasionally leaning into a rhythmic, almost spoken delivery. It is a welcome attempt to push against the familiar Script template, although the band are at their best when melody takes centre stage.

The Script has written a record about picking yourself up, accepting your imperfections and carrying on regardless. In other words, it is exactly the sort of album its title promises: imperfect, occasionally sentimental, always huge but always human.