The Script Tracklist
The Script’s eponymous debut album was released in 2008, via Phonogenic and Epic Records. It features singles “We Cry”, “Breakeven”, “Talk You Down”, “Before The Worst” and the group’s breakthrough hit “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved”.
Much of the album was inspired by member Mark Sheehan’s mother’s terminal illness. As fellow bandmate and vocalist Danny O'Donoghue explained in a 2009 interview:
We’d recorded just scraps and ideas in the studio in my house and we were kind of coming to terms with what type of album this was going to be… and – bang! – right in the middle of that Mark’s mother became terminally ill.
We were going through what felt like the most joyous fucking days of our lives and we now had this to deal with. She had cancer and there was no hope. It was a kick in the fucking teeth. We were at a crossroads. So we asked Mark, “Are you willing to be in America while your mum’s slowly passing away in Ireland?” And he was like, “No, I’m not”.
Although the album has only garnered a mixed reception, it proved highly successful on a commercial scale, becoming a multi-platinum album.
“The Script” Q&A
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Why wasn't "Live Like We're Dying" included in the final album?
“Live Like We’re Dying” wasn’t ever meant to be on the album as, according to guitarist Mark Sheehan, it was one of those “extra songs that don’t make the cut. They have to make sense live or come across well on the album or we don’t do it.”
Interestingly, the Script wasn’t even aware that the song had been released as a bonus track and a b-side. According to Sheehan:
“[It was] one of the songs we didn’t want to put out, but our sneaky label put it out in Germany without telling us. Then we heard Kris Allen was doing it, and we didn’t even know we’d released it! We wouldn’t have done it if we’d been asked, but it is a really good pop song and it works for him. It worked out well in the end.”
