Sam Fender – Hypersonic Missiles //Polydor// (Released 9th August)

Description

£19.99 – Standard LP

Sam Fender‘s debut album, Hypersonic Missiles, was written, recorded and produced at Fender’s own self-built warehouse studio in North Shields. It was recorded alongside long-standing friend and producer, Bramwell Bronte.

Sam Fender is a rare talent. A 24-year-old working-class musician from the North who plays every gig as though it might well be his last, armed with this huge, cavernous vocal, guitar strapped on (a Fender, obviously), and fuelled by that seemingly old-school belief that great guitar music still has the power to change lives and influence people.

There’s a loose thread that has run through all of Sam’s songs to date and that’s in the focus of his lyrics. Observational, questioning and socially engaged, Sam has an innate gift for simplifying matters of the newsworthy and topical. “I don’t have answers only questions” he clarifies on the eyebrow-raising multi-vocal layered new track “White Privilege”, but there’s a canny simplicity here that seems to be touching and speaking plainly to people in their hundreds of thousands. Those words reflect conversations occurring right across the globe, amongst friends in cafes, pubs, and out on the terraces. Frustrations. Misunderstandings. Despair.

“Dead Boys”, a song that really raised the stakes for Sam soon after signing his record deal, tackles the taboo of male suicide. Having lost close friends to the epidemic and read up on the matter to better understand it, Fender was compelled to address it head on in song. The reaction was immediate. Aided by a stunning Vincent Haycock directed video, young men have since cautiously approached Sam after shows to thank him for writing it. Radio stations have received notes from their listeners on a similar theme. It’s touched a nerve, and got people talking. It’s done what good music can do and already become far bigger than just a belting tune. And on Hypersonic Missiles, there’s a sense that there are far more of those revelations still to come.

As litmus tests go, Sam Fender has passed them all, and now with Hypersonic Missiles, Britain’s most likely to is absolutely going to.

Tracklisting:

1. Hypersonic Missiles
2. The Borders
3. White Privilege
4. Dead Boys
5. You’re Not The Only One
6. Play God
7. That Sound
8. Saturday
9. Will We Talk In The Morning
10. Two People
11. Call Me Lover
12. Leave Fast
13. Use (Live)