Album Review: The Script, A User's Guide To Being Human

What are we to expect from a new album by The Script in 2026, when the world around them is changing so rapidly?

The worry is that the recession-era poptimism that made them such a huge global success might sit oddly now on radio channels, in Ireland at least, that are given over to broodier folk-country moods. But there's a lot to be said for honest, unabashed positivity, and The Script deliver lots if it again on A User's Guide To Being Human. But there is also vulnerability.

Broadly speaking we are in familiar country. Coldplay piano-plucks, bright guitars, and symmetrical structures lead to choruses that deliver, in the catchy and anthemic departments.

Opener ‘Man In The Arena’ does an Imagine Dragons/Macklemore rap-type thing in the verses before the uplift arrives. It’s along way from ‘The Man Who Can’t Be Moved’, but there’s substance to the narrative here too, as Danny deals with the insecurities that plague so many artists. "And the critics, they may laugh from the comfort of their couch,” he reflects, "And the whole world says you're wrong but they're mistaken/ If you got the guts to fight, the glory is waiting/ For the ones that step inside the ring."

You can’t really argue with the metaphor.

‘The Crowd Was Singing Wonderwall’ is a ballad about being drunk and euphoric at an Oasis Live ‘25 show. But there is a lesson here too: if the notoriously bellicose brothers can get beyond their disagreements and work things out, then why can’t we? You might find yourself becoming more nostalgic than you intended to, singing along to a catchy chorus that has a hint of Oasis – and indeed U2 – about it.

The title track is Danny O’Donoghue’s manifesto for living in our current technological hellscape. “Woke up in the future,” he muses, “Don’t know where we are."

Like a lot of us, he can’t believe he’s seeing robots being given free rein. But is this really progress? “You won’t need your job,” he says, with a hint of the influence of AI lurking, “But you’ll still get paid/ But with no purpose we’d be worthless/ That’s not how we’re made."

The breakbeat is good, the message isn’t hidden behind cryptic poetry, and it works.

That directness is the record’s best asset. There is an impression of Danny being on the rebound from wild years past, trying to figure out how best to align with a new sobriety. ‘Years’ describes a destructive alcoholic in the second person, painting pictures of a phone ending up in the river, puking at parties, and not being welcome at home. “There’s no staying sober and talking it through,” he complains, “You go weeks on a bender with any bad news.” However, given what O’Donoghue has said about his own drinking recently, it feels like it might be the most candid writing on the album and the hardest-hitting.

Not everything hangs together so well. In ‘Grow Old With Grace’, a comment on the plague of modern beauty standards, O’Donoghue hopes his love won’t want surgery when she gets older. “I hope I grow old with grace,” he sings, “‘Cause I love every line there on her face/ And even if her mind, it starts to fade/ Yeah, I’ll be there." The rejection of cosmetic surgery is welcome, as is the promise of fortitude, but the idea that you can never improve the way things are “made by God” is, let’s say, debatable at least.

Not that we come to a Script record looking for the perfect amalgam of Dylan and Stravinsky.

The User’s Guide To Being Human is a heart-felt record that happens to have more than a few potential hit singles up its sleeve. Fans will doubtless adore it.

• Out now.