I’ve been a massive fan of Sam Fender ever since I heard his sophomore album Seventeen Going Under, an auto-biographical collection of short stories masquerading as songs from his childhood. Fender has earned comparisons to my all-time GOAT Bruce Springsteen over the years due to the profound level of personalization in his music as well as the Americana traditions he clearly borrows from despite the fact he grew up in North Shields, England.
Hypersonic Missiles was his debut album, and displayed all of the heart-on-sleeve urgency which earned him the moniker “Springsteen of the Northeast”. For your debut album written at the age of 25 years old to tackle thoughtless consumerism, toxic masculinity, mental health, and the horrors war (all within the first song mind you) is nothing short of spectacular. There’s a raw, visceral empathy in lines like “I’m not smart but I have ideas,” a confession that feels as wide as the working-class despair he documents. It’s the sound of a young man who sees the world burning and still dares to hold out hope.
And I can’t get enough of it. The working-class grit, tales of weathered dreams, the act of holding on to the nostalgic fragments of our youth with the calloused hands of our present day adulthood. You can hear these themes and influences in ever single bar of Fender’s music, how he was raised by a single father who worked as an electrician and played in local bands, the schoolyard brawls that turned boys into men, the pervasive sense of being left behind as economic hardship turned once thriving municipalities into ghost towns. You can almost hear the crash of the North Sea in his voice — jagged and tender all at once — shaped as much by Springsteen records as it was by pub gigs and bedroom demos. That kind of upbringing doesn’t just influence art, it forges it in the fire. Fender is equal parts struggle and soul.
I’ll be seeing him live for the first night tonight, in tow with a handful of great friends who love music as much as I do. Fender rarely comes out to the states (this will only be his 25th show stateside since he burst onto the scene with Hypersonic Missiles) which makes this a really special event for me. And if he’s half as good live as he is on every album, we’re in for a real treat.
Standout Songs: “Hypersonic Missiles”, “The Borders”, “Dead Boys”, “Will We Talk?”, “That Sound”, “Two People”, “Call Me Lover”
