"I'm standing under a white flag," sings Danny O'Donoghue, positing his Dublin trio as inheritors to the Emerald Isle's greatest band. The Script have enjoyed Euro-chart success with a mix of lite rock, rap rock and Guinness-informed crooning they call "Celtic soul" — at once soaring, melancholic and treacly. Their second disc's big ballad is "For the First Time," about boozing your way through Ireland's recession. But if O'Donoghue references locally, he thinks globally; B.o.B lends verses to the piano-drenched "Walk Away," and O'Donoghue shifts from singing to raps that could come from an American kid who wouldn't know County Kerry from Katy Perry.

Listen to "Nothing":

Gallery: Random Notes, Rock's Hottest Photos

“Ambling Alp”

The "Ambling Alp" was the nickname of the six-and-a-half-foot-tall Primo Carnera. Though the song is named after the Italian-born 1930s heavyweight champion, Yeasayer are actually paying tribute to boxing legend Joe Louis with this first-person psychedelic dance-rock tune. “I was always interested in writing a song that had boxing mythology in it,” Yeasayer’s Chris Keating said. “It’s pretty fascinating: There were so many amazing characters, and it was so closely entwined with 20th century history.” Yeaseyer also invokes German champ Max Schmeling and hints at the historical significance placed on the historic bouts between the Nazi-era boxer and the African-American Louis.