Sam Fender's People Watching album reviews call it "political" and "stadium-ready"

With fans waiting four years for his next record, critics have promised they won't be disappointed, declaring the star "stadium ready" with his "political" new tunes.

Sam is up for two BRIT Awards at this year's ceremony – Best Alternative/Rock Act and Artist Of The Year – and worked alongside The War on Drugs' Adam Granduciel for the new release, someone he calls his "hero".

The album name, and its lead single of the same name, is in honour of the late Byker Grove actress Annie Orwin, who Fender called his "surrogate mother" and spent time with until she died.

"It’s just a song about how much I love her really and how much I respected her," he told BBC Radio 1's Jack Saunders. "She was larger than life, so I felt like she needed something that was soaring."

Annie, who died on October 8, 2023, was living in a palliative care home at the time of her passing, a facility Sam called "falling to bits and understaffed".

Her death inspired him to write a new collection of songs which were later added to the album.

What do critics say of Sam Fender's People Watching?

The Guardian gave People Watching five stars and said: "Whether his gaze rests on his past, his present, or the gulf that lurks between them, there’s an urgency about what he has to say, its bleakness and realism at odds with the stadium-scale euphoria of the choruses. Whatever else Sam Fender’s unlikely fame may have changed, it hasn’t dimmed the unique potency of his music."

Rolling Stone gave the album four stars and said: "He may be one of the biggest stars in the UK, but on the showing of this album, it absolutely cements his position as one of our greatest too. The big leagues are where he truly belongs."

DIY Magazine gave the album five stars and wrote: "People Watching is a bleak but astonishing rumination on our current times, viewed through the lens of Sam’s whirlwind past few years - an album that undoubtedly firms up his position as one of the great songwriters of our time."

MOJO gave the album four stars and dubbed Fender "Geordie Springsteen" as they said: "The closing [track] Remember My Name is just soulful vocals and cloistered horns but sounds like a mass epiphany at a future Glastonbury headline slot."

NME gave the release four stars and said: "Fender’s effortlessly direct lyrics are the anchor that uphold him as a heavyweight within Britain’s indie rock scene."

National World said: "While People Watching experiments with different sounds and styles, Fender’s messages are still as important and impactful as ever, and you can’t help but listen."

Sam Fender's People Watching is available to buy and stream now.

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