The Wednesday Round-Up

Over at Allan's World, Joe gives a in-depth review of a Paramore show that included Paper Route, Phantom Planet, and Jack’s Mannequin. The post includes many insights into these bands including a critique of Phantom Planet's revamped sound.

The Music Guru continues to give a comprehensive list of album releases each week. He does a lot of leg work and has become my resource for lesser-known releases.

Original Glazed is a good source for a summary of the UK and US charts. Pardon me for being sickened that the UK has bands like The Script, Coldplay and Noah and the Whale in their top ten albums while in the US we have The Jonas Brothers (two albums even!), Miley Cyrus and Sugarland.

Over at The Cheap Pop we have a review snippet for Lykke Li (my new music crush along with Ra Ra Riot).

If you are interested in linking up please drop me a line at captainmelody@gmail.com

Album Review: The Script - The Script

The Script is an Irish trio consisting of Danny O’Donoghue (Vocals), Mark Sheehan (Guitar), and Glen Power (Drums). The group signed to the label Phonogenic in 2007 releasing an EP, but O'Donoghue and Sheehan (friends since teenagers) have been writing music together professionaly for several years.

The two came to the US and worked as a team making demos for other groups, and eventually became members of MyTown, an Irish "boy band." A search on the internet does not provide a very concrete history or biography of MyTown, just teenage girl websites talking about their crushes on members of the group. Ultimately, this project was suspended.

Danny and Mark met and played with drummer Glen Power and became "The Script."

After releasing the singles "We Cry" and "The Man That Can't Be Moved" The Script released it's first full-length album on August 11th, 2008 in the UK.

The first thing that stands out on this album is O'Donoghue's vocals. Imagine Adam Levine from Maroon 5 with a deeper and more versatile tone. O'Donoghue's voice is so strong you can see how he could contribute to a boy band (not that this is a good thing :p).

The production is solid. There is a great quality to the overall sound and mix. I believe a good comparison would be U2 with more toughness.

The music is very well-written with entertaining lyrics and melodies. There is a deepness and introspective feel to most of the songs that breaks the fear of The Script slipping into a boy band as you listen to the album.

My favorite tracks are "Rusty Halo" that feels like an 80's hit on crack, and "Breakeven" in which O'Donoghue's sounds like a male version of Natasha Bedingfield.

For us yankees, the album has not yet been released in the US. The import price is outrageous but amazon currently has new copies on sell by a Hong Kong merchant for $16.10.