Sam Fender has released the first official preview of his upcoming album ‘People Watching’ – you can listen to it below.
Today (November 15), Fender has shared the title track from the forthcoming album, which is due to arrive on February 21, 2025 via Polydor. You can pre-order the LP here.
The lead single, ‘People Watching’, is a euphoric five-minute cut that was written in honour of Sam Fender’s late mentor and friend Annie Orwin and is tells the story of his perspective of visiting her at a care home.
Juxtaposing the track’s sombre theme is a bright, hopeful sound and message that encapsulates breaking out of a dark period. He sings against poppy guitar chords in the opening verse: “I people-watch on the way back home / Envious of the glimmer of hope / Gives me a break from feeling alone / Gives me a moment out of the ego.”
The song’s second verse dives deeper into his visits to Orwin: “I came back home after seven years / Wide awake, tracing tracks of her tears/ Cornered the nurse to get the gist of it / I promised her I’d get her out of the care home / The place was fallin’ to bits / Understaffed and overruled by callous hands / The poor nurse was around the clock / And the beauty of youth had left my breaking heart / But it wasn’t hard when you love someone / Oh, I stayed all night till you left this life ’cause that’s just love“.
Fender first revealed the story behind the upcoming single last week and shared that the track is about somebody who was “like a surrogate mother to me and passed away last November. I was by her side at the end, slept on a chair next to her. It’s about what was going through my head, to and from that place and home.”
He continued: “It’s kind of ironic because she was the one that gave me the confidence to go on stage, and always used to be like ‘why haven’t you mentioned my name in your acceptance speech’. But now an entire song (and album) connects to her. I hope that wherever she is now she’s looking down saying ‘about time kid’.”
‘People Watching’ marks the first official release from Fender’s upcoming album of the same name. Earlier this week, he revealed details surrounding the record, including its tracklisting. It was produced by Fender alongside his bandmates Dean Thompson, Joe Atkinson, producer Markus Dravs, and The War on Drugs’ Adam Granduciel.
A press release describes Fender’s album as “his next steps forward”, promising to provide “colourful stories and observations of everyday characters living their everyday, but often extraordinary, lives.”
He first debuted ‘People Watching’ live, along with another unreleased song, ‘Nostalgia’s Lie’ in August, with both set to appear on his long-awaited third album.
Fender’s last album, ‘Seventeen Going Under’, was named Best Album In The World and Best Album By A UK Artist at the BandLab NME Awards 2022. NME gave it four stars, calling it a “bruising” second album and saying: “If ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ was the sound of a young boy kicking out at the world, ‘Seventeen Going Under’ sees Fender realise that it can kick back a lot harder, and he counts every blow and bruise. But he seems to have found that time passes and that most wounds – even the deepest – will eventually heal, if he can allow them to.”
His forthcoming UK and Ireland tour includes two nights at The O2 in London. £1 from every ticket sold for these dates will be donated to the Music Venue Trust in support of grassroots venues. Find any remaining tickets here.
