Album Review: The Script – Satellites

Launched: August 16

Because the premature loss of life of guitarist Mark Sheehan in April 2023, life for The Script has been a rollercoaster experience of grief, uncertainty and banding collectively to proceed the legacy he and frontman Danny O’Donoghue began 25 years in the past. 

If their 2022 ‘Biggest Hits’ LP marked the closing of the band’s first chapter, ‘Satellites’ is the dawning of a brand new period that sees the singer-songwriter and drummer Glen Energy joined by Benjamin Sargent (bass) and Ben Weaver (guitar) in a brand new look line-up that lays the foundations for the long run. 

Lead single Higher Days upheld that viewpoint, with a lyric that celebrates dwelling within the right here and now, and making reminiscences for one’s future self, with the stadium-sized anthem signposting a band that has no intention of slowing down. 

This time round, the group let free within the studio and experimented in quite a lot of methods, utilizing 808s and taking part in with R&B-inspired sounds, with a deal with upbeats sonics that introduced out the pop thread that’s all the time been a constant undercurrent in The Script’s materials. 

The handclap-heavy Unsaid has echoes of Justin Timberlake, whereas Falling Flying is evocative of driving down the freeway with the highest down and Run Run Run a pop-punk ode to the group’s collective historical past and shared experiences collectively. 

With an overarching sense of optimism, ‘Satellites’ is underpinned by a deep private thread that cuts via O’Donoghue’s lyrics and faucets into the core of the artist as he finds himself in the present day. There are, in fact, nods to Sheehan; most notably on Gone, he sings of in the future reuniting together with his late good friend: ‘I wish to assume you lastly discovered some peace / And wherever you might be simply save a sеat for me’.

The introspective Inside Out sees him mirror on his psychological well being and struggles with ‘despair and anxieties’, whereas musing on cultural and political points that body on a regular basis life: ‘Unhealthy information in social media that triggers OCD / Can’t consider something, my coronary heart’s ADHD’. In the meantime, the slow-burning soft-rock single At Your Ft is an early spotlight on the LP that’s paying homage to their best-loved materials and captures the essence of the band’s early data. 

Notable is the dichotomy between the ‘new Script’-style manufacturing that options throughout a lot of the document and the extra stripped-back moments on ‘Satellites’ that invariably see O’Donoghue navigating the place by which he discovered himself whereas writing and recording the album. It’s a placing strategy that sees the group working in direction of a brand new future whereas protecting one foot up to now and Sheehan on the coronary heart of the mission. 

Rewind 12 months and, for a short second, it appeared like The Script may very well be over without end, so it’s a testomony to each founders and their dedication and fervour for music that they continued ahead with this document. What’s a fair larger achievement is that O’Donoghue and co. have channeled a plethora of feelings right into a physique of labor that represents not solely The Script’s shared historical past, however the ideas, emotions and feelings of the group as they have a good time the previous and step into a brand new future.