Irish chart giants The Script have announced details of their brand new album The User’s Guide To Being Human, set for release on 14th August, alongside the arrival of its powerful lead single Man In The Arena.
The Script
The album marks a significant new chapter for the band following the emotional weight of 2024’s Satellites, which saw frontman Danny O’Donoghue navigating the grief surrounding the loss of bandmate Mark Sheehan in 2023. While that record reflected heartbreak and healing, The User’s Guide To Being Human channels renewed purpose, resilience and forward momentum.
Speaking about the project, O’Donoghue describes music as the way he has always processed life’s most defining moments, from childhood struggles to personal loss. That emotional honesty has long been at the core of The Script’s appeal, helping the band become one of the UK and Ireland’s most successful modern rock-pop acts with six UK number one albums, over 14 billion global streams and millions of tickets sold worldwide.
Lead single Man In The Arena arrives with all the hallmarks of a classic Script anthem — soaring hooks, stadium-sized ambition and emotionally charged lyricism. Inspired in part by Theodore Roosevelt’s famous “Man In The Arena” speech, the track celebrates those willing to risk failure by stepping into the spotlight, rather than criticising from the sidelines. Built around a driving R&B groove before exploding into a huge singalong chorus, it feels purpose-built for the arenas the band will soon return to across Europe and beyond.
The new album was written and recorded in Los Angeles’ Topanga Canyon alongside longtime collaborators Andrew Frampton, Steve Kipner and Jimbo Barry — the same creative team behind some of the band’s biggest hits including Hall Of Fame, Breakeven and The Man Who Can’t Be Moved. The resulting record promises a balance of emotional vulnerability and widescreen pop-rock ambition, something The Script have mastered throughout their career.
Alongside the album announcement comes confirmation of a huge UK and European arena tour beginning this autumn, with extensive dates across Ireland, England and Scotland before continuing into mainland Europe, Asia and Australia in 2027. The band will also spend much of this summer performing to enormous stadium crowds as special guests for Take That and Luke Combs.
The Script @ BST Hyde Park 2023
With a catalogue already packed full of era-defining anthems and a new record centred around what it means to stay human through life’s chaos, The Script appear ready to begin another major chapter.
UK & Ireland Tour Dates
OCTOBER
30th – 3Arena, Dublin
31st – 3Arena, Dublin
NOVEMBER
2nd – SSE Arena, Belfast
5th – Utilita Arena, Newcastle
6th – Utilita Arena, Birmingham
7th – Co-op Live, Manchester
9th – Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham
10th – First Direct Arena, Leeds
12th – P&J Live, Aberdeen
13th – OVO Hydro, Glasgow
14th – Utilita Arena, Sheffield
16th – International Centre, Bournemouth
17th – Utilita Arena, Cardiff
19th – M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool
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