Exclusive: The Script confirm new album release

hotpress.com is just back from Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin where The Script treated us to sarnies, coffee and a first listen to some of the songs from their eagerly awaited second album.
Originally scheduled for early 2011 release, Science & Faith will now be hitting the racks here on September 10 with the lead single, ‘For The First Time’, out a week earlier.
“While everyone else was out drinking and getting papped, we were working day and night on the record,” says a chipper Danny O’Donoghue who’s just back from his holliers in Rome, Florence and Venice. “Once we got started, it came really easily. We were able to bring everything forward six months, which we’re delighted about because we’re itching for people to hear the new songs!”
Not that the old ones have outstayed their welcome yet.
“I think we’ve broken Snow Patrol’s record for the number of weeks it’s taken to get to the top of the Adult Contemporary Album chart in the States,” Danny smiles. “We’ve had great support from TV and radio there, but the big thing has been word of mouth.”
Master of Ceremony duties for the afternoon were handled by Mark Sheehan who joked “don’t worry, we haven’t gone techno!” before pressing ‘play’ on ‘For The First Time’. As soon as he did any fears of The Script suffering from difficult second album syndrome went out the window.
A number one smash waiting to happen, its “Drinking old cheap bottles of wine/Shit talking up all night/Saying things we haven’t for a while/We’re smiling but we’re close to tears” refrain has apparently already won over BBC Radios One and Two in the UK who are going to give it a seven-week lead in. Lest programme controllers get cold feet, the "shit talking up all night" part will be changed "to sit talking up all night" for airplay purposes.
It’s a glorious pop song, upbeat despite the recessionary subject matter and guaranteed to be a singalong fave when The Script resume touring before Christmas. Danny was keeping schtum about where they might play in Ireland, but did say how much he loves the new Dublin O2.
The second single off Science & Faith is likely to be ‘Nothing’, an apparently autobiographical tale of Mr. O’Donoghue broken heartedly – and drunkenly! – ringing up an old love.
“My mates are all there trying to calm me down/Because I’m shouting your name all over town,” is the plaintive message as himself and the lads unashamedly tug at the heartstrings.
There’s more big balladry in the shape of ‘If You Ever Come Back’, some chiming Edge-style guitar on the title-track and an unexpected kick in the how’s your fathers from ‘You Wouldn’t Feel A Thing’, which is The Script at their most overtly rock 'n' roll.
We’ll have more on Science & Faith in our next issue, out on Thursday July 29.