Sam Fender continues his ascent with ‘People Watching’

A beautiful, poetic and gut punching third record that will undoubtedly catapult the Geordie singer’s success to even greater heights.

In what felt like the longest wait ever between albums, Sam Fender finally delivered album number three in February. And the “Geordie Springsteen” smashed all expectations out the window once again.

Now, I’ll admit I’m not quite as blown away yet as I was initially with Seventeen Going Under. But that doesn’t mean I’m not still gripped by People Watching - albeit, I haven’t quite devoured the album as much as his last…not yet, anyway! His latest was co-produced with Adam Granduciel of The War On Drugs fame, which really feels like a suitable fit considering the heartland rock similarities of both acts (I’ve been banging on for ages how much of an influence The War On Drugs have been on Sam without it being noted elsewhere).

And Sam goes even stronger in this direction here, matching his working class reflections with introspective poignancy and arena-sized, soaring-ness. The latter is typified by the rousing title trackwritten about Sam’s experiences visiting a surrogate mother figure in a care home before her death.

‘Nostalgia’s Lie’ was a personal favourite, one that sounds bittersweet and uplifting yet full of cynical lyricism. The moody vibe on ‘TV Dinner’ stands the track out within the back half for its more unconventional structure. But it’s the brass-carrying closer ‘Remember My Name’ that steals the show entirely, a tear-jerking ode to Sam’s dementia-suffering grandmother

So, People Watching is a beautiful, poetic and gut punching record that will undoubtedly catapult Sam’s success to even new heights. Hopefully now even America can start to take notice – that is if they can ignore the lazy Springsteen tropes that seem to unfairly cast a pre-judgement with many American music critics (looking at you Anthony Fantano!).