Album: The Script, The Script (RCA)

London-based Dublin trio The Script like to characterise their music as "Celtic Soul", but this debut album is light years away from Van or Dexy's or The Hothouse Flowers.

Singer Danny O'Donoghue sounds like so many different vocalists – from John Legend on "Fall For Anything", to St Bono of Vox on "We Cry" – that it's hard to get a reliable grasp on his true personality. The band's music likewise pilfers from tried and trusted crowd-pleasers, with the piano power-ballad "Before the Worst" apeing Keane in its fusion of melodrama and moody yearning, "Rusty Halo" sounding, from O'Donoghue's vaunting delivery, like a Police outtake, and the current single "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" a Maroon 5 photocopy.

Broad-stroke clichés also dominate their lyrics – no real drawback on routine love plaints such as "The End Where I Begin" and obvious future single "Break Even", but less acceptable depicting the romanticised privations of the sufferers in "We Cry". The epitome of modern formulaic pop.

Pick of the album:'Break Even', 'Talk You Down', 'Fall For Anything'