People Watching (4.5 ) by Sam Fender

Georgia

6

remember my name made me cry

benjani

11

Just a warning, this is a long log. Of all the artists whose albums I’ve covered since I started this account, Sam Fender is... the first one I’ve seen live. It was only a few months ago and he played several tracks from this new album, all of which were unreleased at the time barring the title track, so it did peak my interest as a fan of his and someone who really enjoyed his first two albums. So with that said, I can definitely confirm ‘People Watching’ is another great addition to Fender’s catalogue. There’s definitely a different vibe here to Fender’s earlier projects in the sense that while his 2019 debut ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ and its 2021 follow-up ‘Seventeen Going Under’ prided themselves on big anthemic tracks like both title tracks, ‘Will We Talk?’, ‘Get You Down’ and ‘The Borders’, ‘People Watching’ is largely a lot slower and more mellow after the upbeat anthem title track which opens the record. Some have criticised this shift in tone and Fender straying from that “winning formula” which has given him a platform to begin with, but I actually think it works well as it shows us a more mature side to Fender as both a lyricist and a vocalist. While there are a few tracks which are just the jugular “life’s shit up north, we’re all skint, let’s get on the sesh” which we expect to see from Fender on tracks like ‘Wild Long Lie’, we also get to see him get political on tracks like ‘Crumbling Empire’, explore his love/hate relationship with religion on ‘Little Bit Closer’ and how the media can destroy young artists paying tribute to Amy Winehouse on ‘TV Dinner’. As I say there’s also more to Sam vocally on this album than in his previous efforts. For example, in the aforementioned ‘TV Dinner’ we hear the anger and passion in his voice when tackling the subject, but by far the biggest highlight of the album in all fields is its closer ‘Remember My Name’. In this heartbreaking ballad we get Fender not only lyrically maturing talking about his late grandparents struggle with dementia but we hear him belt and give the most emotional vocal performance of his career to date and instrumentally it has an epic orchestral feel throughout the entire runtime. There’s a lot to like in terms of the production and instrumentation throughout ‘People Watching’ as well. The big story being linked to this album is of course Adam Granduciel (frontman of American rock band The War On Drugs) being involved in producing all the tracks excluding ‘Little Bit Closer’ and ‘Remember My Name’ (ironically my two favourites from the whole album). You can definitely hear Granduciel’s influence on tracks like ‘Arm’s Length’, ‘Crumbling Empire’ and ‘Nostalgia’s Lie’ with some more psychedelic sounding guitar work, which does feel like it’s Fender trying to silence critics of his first album that he’s just a Bruce Springsteen wannabe and moving away from that. There are other obvious influences here, such as ‘Chin Up’ being very reminiscent of The Verve. What really gets me though is the production mood-setting effectively, which I think for indie acts like Fender is so important. The bassier guitars on ‘Something Heavy’ and those darker sounding synths through ‘TV Dinner’ really do give an effective atmosphere for those tracks given their darker subject matters. On top of this there’s the anthemic ‘Little Bit Closer’ which is accompanied by some epic strings throughout to really capture that anthem feel that a track like this needs, and the aforementioned orchestral instrumental through ‘Remember My Name’ to bring the album to a close. I suppose my main criticism is really the underuse/misuse of Fender’s trusted saxophonist Johnny ‘Bluehat’ Davis. While we do get some nice sax work through the title track, Bluehat is only credited twice more for the remainder of the record, and it’s on easily the worst two tracks. Those being the blandly written, overly long ‘Wild Long Lie’, and the mature and deeply written but largely boring, radio-fodder (you could argue ‘Arm’s Length’ would also fall into this category without the punchy guitar riff which runs throughout) sounding ‘Rein Me In’. It’s just a shame to see Bluehat not utilised given in the previous two albums (see ‘The Borders’) he was responsible for some of the biggest highlights. Overall, while I may have some issues with some production choices and some of the tracks not being too innovative from a lyrical standpoint, the positives VASTLY outweigh the negatives with this album. Both of Fender’s previous projects finished in my top 5 albums of their respective years, and I’d be very shocked if ‘People Watching’ doesn’t do the same in 2025. A very strong 8/10. show more