Over two albums, Sam Fender has cast an increasingly astute eye over the working-class struggles of his native North Shields while wrangling with his own parallel narrative. But after his acclaimed 2019 debut, Hypersonic Missiles, and its hugely successful follow-up, Seventeen Going Under (2021), the 30-year-old clearly feels the weight of other people’s attention. On his troubled yet brilliant third album, People Watching, that shift hangs heavy.
The lead-single title track is a natural continuation from the widescreen Springsteen-isms of Seventeen…, on an adventurous record that takes in rootsy fingerpicking (Wild Long Lie) and a subversively breezy duet with singer Brooke Bentham (Arm’s Length). Lyrically, however, the sad yearning of the opener signposts the turmoil to come, whether it’s new parents back home who “can’t heat the place for fucking love nor money” (Chin Up) or industry vultures “fetishis[ing] struggling” on the vitriolic, pitch-black highlight TV Dinner.
Ultimately, this is a lonely document of fame, and of a man clinging on to the community his talents have propelled him away from. And where his previous album revealed Fender to be a songwriter of depth, People Watching explores life’s ugliness and finds excellence.
