Occasional Albums Thing 022 - Sam Fender “People Watching”

Back in July 2023 I said, at the end of a piece about Sam Fender’s “Seventeen Going Under” album, that I couldn’t “wait to hear what the canny chanter does next”. Well here it is and given how I feel about Sam’s first two records this one has a lot to live up to.

As is the way of things these days tracks from “People Watching” began leaking out (officially) at the end of 2024. The title track in mid November and then “Wild Long Lie” in the first week of December, all ahead of the release of this album on February 21st. Both songs are great (phew), Sam Fender and his band doing what Sam Fender and his band do (sometimes there’s a lot to be said for that). There was another track dripped but, I’m from the old school and I’d prefer to hear a new album in its entirety, not in installments, so I stopped listening until the record showed up.

And show up it did on release day. I plumped for the Indie exclusive “Blue Eye Yolk” version, which if you want to know is a clearish vinyl record with a blue blob in the middle which I guess could look like a yolk if you fancied a severe case of food poisoning !

The previously available title track opens the album. If you want that well known Sam Fender sound, piano chords, drummer Drew Michael’s incessant Klaus Dinger tribute, a huge chorus and a sax at the end, well it’s all there on title song “People Watching”. Its verses have a hint of U2’s “Beautiful Day” about it but by the time you hit the chorus all is forgiven.

Things take a sharp turn though on 2nd song “Nostalgias Lie” which is a folky/Byrdsian beauty. “Chin Up” reminds me of the songs Damien Dempsey wrote on his early albums, looking back on a young life and feeling responsible for what you may have left behind. “Wild Long Lie” and “Arm’s Length” (featuring someone sounding like they’re trying to figure out how to play Johnny Kidd & The Pirates “Shakin’ All Over”) bring Side 1 to an end in what feels like double quick time, it’s over in a flash

The genius of Sam Fender is quite possibly to be found in “Crumbling Empire” at the start of Side 2. The backing track sounds like prime 80’s US FM radio fodder (think Don Henley or Mike & The Mechanics !) but lyrics like…

Twenty-five years on crack and dope, Begging to pay for synthetic hope

Just another kid failed by these blokes, And their crumbling empire

…quickly disabuse you of any visions of LA freeways the music might have conjured…close to a 21st century update on John Cooper Clarke’s era defining “Beasley Street”.

“Little Bit Closer” you can already hear is gonna be a live communion between singer and his audience. “Rein Me In” sits on a hypnotic guitar riff, a great pop song, it has HIT written all over it…Polydor must have screamed when they read the lyrics (“Telling everybody how much I fucked it up, Telling everybody but you, how much I fucked it up”) ! “TV Dinner” hints at the cancellation of shows in 2022 so Sam could “look after his mental health” and how that was dealt with.

And finally “Remember My Name”…fucking hell…I’m not ashamed to tell you there were tears. It’s a song about Sam’s Grandparents, beautifully written and arranged with the Easington Colliery Brass Band and good grief it’s something special to end this record on, prepare yourself before you click the link below.

I’m sure I’ve said this about Sam Fender before but he’s found the key to making records that suit the modern listeners ear and that sell (in big numbers) while still having something to say. If you’ve ever been in a room when the DJ drops “17 Going Under” and seen the young uns leaping to the dancefloor while singing along to every word, it kinda restores your faith. Sam does have a lot to say and in all that singing along some of it must be sticking with “the kids”. You’d have to go back to the days of The Jam and The Specials to find artists selling this many records, having big hits, while having something genuinely important to say, and neither of those two did me any harm.

Some lazy journalists have begun referring to him as the “Geordie Springsteen”, well if well written songs, a piano and a saxophone qualify you as the new Springsteen let’s throw Secret Affair in there for consideration too…no ? Thought not. Sam is a great songwriter, and that’s his (magic) trick at heart. He writes middle 8’s too, which a very fine songwriter of my acquaintance pointed out to me recently no-one in the “pop” world does anymore. It’s also the little things about his performance that stick out to me …he sings the word "can’t" like an English person would say it and not some ridiculously contrived, strangled US-English cay-en’t that so many others do !!!

“People Watching” more than lives up to Sam Fender’s first two albums. There’s a development in his writing without losing the things that have made him what he is so far. I’ll have this album on constant repeat for a good few weeks yet and hopefully I’ll get to see him live sometime.

I'll say it again...Sam Fender gives me hope…

Remember My Name - https://youtu.be/uaQm48G6IjY?si=mMmoBmCde4URk6us