If ex-boyband members are a sticking point for you, you may as well stop reading now. If, however, you're open to the possibility that folk change, develop their abilities and mature as people and songwriters over the course of a decade, you may well be interested in The Script.
It's true that two of the three Dubliners kick-started their career in late '90s boyband MyTown, but Mark Sheehan and Danny O'Donoghue subsequently put the memory of their pop flop behind them, moved to Los Angeles and both gained studio experience in production, writing and session work, working with the likes of BLACKstreet's Teddy Riley and Pharrell Williams.
It's no surprise, then, that The Script sound nothing like the tinny, tacky, embarrassing pop acts that Ireland is notorious for churning out; theirs is a robust, glossy, super-Americanised soun, steeped in experience and an awareness of what appeals to the masses.
And masses of sales are an inevitability for this album: the initial singles, We Cry and The Man Who Can't Be Moved are ultra-radio-friendly, slick and undeniably catchy numbers, as is the piano-infused, Dublin-referencing Before the Worst and the bouncy, uptempo, street-flavoured Rusty Halo.
True, the lyrics are occasionally mawkish (see The Man Who Can't Be Moved's awful line "There are no holes in his shoes / But a big hole in his world"), the tone a bit too sentimental at times, and if you're not a fan of Maroon 5 and their ilk, you'll dismiss this album immediately. Yet even the most stubborn of music snobs can't deny that this is world-beating pop music - a world which The Script are surely on their way to conquering.
