English Heartland Rock

By Stewart Dowouis

Sam Fender. Chances are this is the first time you’ve heard this name. I was right there with you until a week or so ago, and that’s pretty wild.

I’m not sure that we have an equivalent artist to Sam in the U.S., an accomplished singer/songwriter that is absolutely massive in his homeland of England - I’m talking sell out stadiums and number 1 records massive - yet virtually unknown outside of it. I could be overlooking an obvious example here in the moment, but Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan are certainly recognizable artists in other parts of the world. It’s weird how these things play out globaly in the music industry sometimes. Either way, Sam Fender’s latest album, People Watching, is absolutely fantastic and worth your attention.

**Full disclosure…if you have a predisposition to ignore anything pop oriented and/or meticulously crafted and produced, it may confound you. You can stop reading now.**

The first thing you may notice if you decide to check People Watching out is that there’s some pretty shameless Springsteen worship going on. Not in a blatant Greta Van Fleet imitation sorta way, but more so in many of the record’s sonic choices and lyricism. Sam, like Bruce, paints entire mental pictures of our shared human experience via short verses and lush soundscapes. He’s a poetic storyteller of the highest order. He’s the embodiment of American heartland rock spirit thousands of miles, and a generation or two, from Mellencamp. People Watching carries the crushing emotional weight of an Iris DeMent record and a summer trip to the beach all in one. A snapshot of a million moments…tragic and triumphant…of a life lived. Kinda wild considering he’s only 30.

I‘m sure this all sounds like overblown rock journalism drivel, and it might be. But hey…this album is great, heady stuff. I’m spinning the hell out of it. Probably will for a while.

Browse Sam Fender records at our store right here