I’m a little surprised at how little attention Sam Fender gets round here. @niallb has sung his praises before but apart from that, not much.
And yet he seems to the right in the Afterword sweet spot. Like the offspring of a one night stand between Bruce Springsteen and The War On Drugs with his very own pop sensibility, The music is both classically rock but also bang up to date. Tunes aplenty, brilliant productions and lyrically interesting. I think the lad is ticking every box.
His last single, People Watching, is a groove, a tune and a moving set of lyrics about the loss of a family member. A fresh version of what we used to enjoy a few years ago.
Video in the comments.
I’ve just listened to that. It reminded me of something. On the second play I remembered what it was…
You and me both Colin. See my comments below regarding ‘a deadhead sticker…’.
Which was almost a Tom Petty track. This is worth a quick watch…..
https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/mike-campbell-tells-the-story-of-boys-of-summer.2313411/
Interesting how the collaboration came about. I’m currently reading the Paul McCartney Legacy volume 2 in which the story of how ‘Walking in the Park with Eloise’ arose out of a chat between Paul & Chet Atkins. The song had started off years earlier having been written by Jim McCartney, Paul’s dad. Chet eventually played on the track. Another interesting collaboration.
https://www.nme.com/news/music/the-war-on-drugs-adam-granduciel-on-working-with-sam-fender-i-didnt-realise-how-much-of-a-musical-savant-he-was-3822610
He’s one of those overnight sensations, having spent years schelping around folk clubs. I saw him supporting my tall chum in 2013, when he was 18.
As I listened to that song, the line ‘a deadhead sticker on a Cadillac’ came into my head. It also made me think of my mum who passed away in 2020. I will investigate Sam Fender further having seen him a couple of times on TV. I have a Geordie affinity as my granny came from Gateshead.
He’s the real deal. The Springsteen comparisons are perfectly valid and have been endorsed by Bruce himself. Look out the lovely BBC documentary about Alan Hull, Lindisfarne’s Geordie Genius, which Sam fronts. His love and passion for the great man is completely evident.
I agree that he comes over well in that doc. Unfortunately, for me, his own version of Hull’s ‘Winter Song’ is unlistenable.
Did like his album Seventeen Going Under (and I really must pull it off the shelf again soon – thanks for the prompt).
Like the sound of that new one too.
I grew to like Seventeen Going Under when it got a lot of airplay – a proper song, but the first time it caught my ear my thoughts were that someone had ripped off wholesale the song A Pagan Place by the Waterboys. The chords, tempo and arrangement are so similar.
It’s kinda similar @bamber certainly got the same sort of groove though I’ve only just heard it for the first time
I think @carl has sung his praises in the past.
He is a man with admirable taste so I wouldn’t be surprised.
No it wasn’t me.
I have hardly heard a thing by him, but he may well be worth checking out.
I am in a break between sets at the Americana Festival and have just seen a brilliant Canadian First Nation artist, Jade Turner. She has an album coming out next month. Absolutely wonderful voice.
There are a couple of things on YouTube.
When her name comes up in future, remember, you heard of her first here.
Let’s listen to one of her songs,
Thanks for the tip, @Carl.
I understand your enthusiasm, Carl. She’s an excellent story-teller.
That’s lovely.
I’m a big fan and I’m glad to see people sharing the love in this thread, as I always had the impression that he’s a bit marmite. My mate, a big Springsteen fan, isn’t impressed and thinks it’s all been done before.
Yes, he does Boss-style big sax and big chorus anthems very well – one of my musical highlights of the last couple of years was seeing him close a festival with Hypersonic Missiles, alongside my then 16-year-old daughter, both of us punching the air alongside several thousand others.
But it’s the subtler, more nuanced tunes that make me think we have a special talent here: songs like Mantra and Spit of You off the last album, and Wild Long Lie off the next one. There’s so, so much more to him than the Springsteen (or even the Granduciel) influence.
And I can’t think of anyone else of his age and stature writing so acutely about bullying (“I was far too scared to hit him, but I’d hit him in a heartbeat now”), teenage alienation (“Canny chanter but he looks sad, God the kid looks so sad”), and austerity (“I see my mother, the DWP sees a number”)… and all in the same song, AND having a Top 10 hit with it.
I hope he gets his Pyramid headline slot. I fear he may not, at least not this year (Neil Young probably fills the white guitar rocker quotient) – but I’ll be seeing him headline Rock Werchter in Belgium, anyway.
I’m with your mate. From all I’ve heard so far, including the new one above which I played all through, he’s an electric Sheeran with some Springsteen production touches. I’m sure he would be delighted with a fraction of either’s success though so good luck to him.
I am favourable without being a complete fan. The first album I find rather take it or leave it, though there’s half an album of excellent work on the second – more than enough to justify.
The new single seems to cleave rather closely to the Henley Hitmaker’s classic. Just as Taylor Swift is a musical phenomenon without necessarily adding much that is musically distinctive to the world, so I think it is with Fender. If it leads people to the War on Drugs and Springsteen can’t complain.
Does he do any songs at different speeds? I like but they all become the same.
That struck me when I played the Seventeen Going Under album endorsed above, after thinking I was being too dismissive on my very slight acquaintance with his work. That and how he likes to shout (I really don’t care for his voice at all) the same line over again, most often starting with ‘I’. It’s pretty thin gruel.
I’d suggest this sounds a bit different. But if you don’t like, you don’t like. I like loads of bands despite them sounding similar on each album. Probably becasue they sound similar to be honest.
Taylor Swift doesn’t add anything musically distinctive to the world of music but derivative, mind-numbingly awful War on Drugs do?
Words fail…
You may have replied to the wrong post. I love Taylor Swift lots.
I was replying to Mr Moles ….
I like some of her music a lot, though the last album by the end had delighted me for long enough. But she’s not, unlike say Billie Eilish, made me sit up and think ‘not heard that before’ .
Elsewhere people probably ask where all the protest songs, the political songs etc have gone. To me he’s more a Billy Bragg than a Bruce, he’s eloquent and direct and taking it to the masses. This guy is who we need.
Think this is the third time I have posted this. Nothing short of magnificent. Oh to be young again
I agree with you. I think it’s great that he’s encouraging young men to face their feelings head on. Plus in his own accent. I love him.
I am ambivalent. I bought his first album and like it but don’t love it. In truth its charms wore thin after a few listens mainly due to a lack of variation.
I like what he stands for and respect what he is doing in a World of formulaic pop music. If it gets a younger audience to follow his development and discover other artists of a similar ilk then all is good.
I saw him support Bruce in Rome two years ago – he played a very well received set and then stood at the side of the stage for Bruce’s set with wide eyed wonder.
He wears his influences on his sleeve that’s for sure. Maybe next up could a solo style record in similar vein to Nebraska. Now that would be interesting.
Like this you mean?
Hi Lodes yeah exactly like that. Hadn’t heard that before – thanks for posting
What’s the AW verdict on another similar young’un, George Ezra?
Apart from coming from my home town, his mum (a supply teacher) taught me in sixth form during the day and served me pints in the Old Barge pub in the evenings, with a wry smile, possibly because she wasn’t much older than I was then.
I quite like Budapest when it turns up on the wireless.
It’s a tune! As is this one:
Do he and Sam Fender both share the same larynx, or at least the same vocal coach?
I don’t know where he gets his singing voice from, but that isn’t his local Hertford accent. Compared to the natives of ‘artfud, he sounds like the Wurzles. He should probably sing in Mockney, like that Damien Allbran fella from The Blurs.
Cambridge natives still think I sound like Big Vern, and I’ve lived up here for nearly 40 years.
Sam Fender can do no wrong here in the North East, but I must be the only Geordie who isn’t a fan. There’s no particular reason, it’s just not my thing.