(Photo: Mary Turner/The New York Times)
By Nick Gillingham
27th March 2025
It is just over a month on from the release of Sam Fender’s latest album, People Watching. Fender, through his use of social commentary and political observations, has cemented his legacy as one of the UK’s most impactful musical voices in the 21st century. In an age where the intersection of politics and music has become less popular, Fender has managed to find great success in sharing his views through music. In the title track, People Watching, Fender recalls his visits to a care home to see Annie Orwin, who he described to the BBC as “a surrogate mother in a lot of ways”.
“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”
This clear criticism of the NHS and those responsible for the ‘Crumbling Empire’, another of his tracks on the album, isn’t a new approach by Fender but a continuation of similar themes he has sung about in previous albums. Songs such as ‘Poundshop Kardashians’, ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ and ‘Play God’, to name a few, are heavily political, singing about a multitude of issues, even referring to Donald Trump as an ‘orange-faced baby at the wheel of the ship’ in ‘Poundshop Kardashians’.
While other artists like Dave and Stormzy use music as a medium to air their political views, Fender stands alone in the modern, mainstream political rock arena. We would have to look back as far as Bob Dylan and John Lennon, whose protest songs became anthems for the civil rights and anti-war movements, to find the last to fill that particular niche.
But it isn’t his willingness to air his political views through his music which sets Fender apart from other musicians in the modern day; it’s his rawness and authenticity. Fender often builds his lyrics on the tough reality of growing up in a broken, working-class family, with many of his childhood friends and the UK population alike sharing similar experiences. Fender also happily crosses the stigmatic borders of mental health through his songs like ‘Dead Boys’ and ‘The Dying Light’, which many strugglers resonate with and feel empowered to speak on, following in the footsteps of their favourite artist. In an interview aired on Liverpool Politics Hour, I asked Dr Mike Jones, previously of the band Latin Quarter, about the power of music and the impact of lyrics in songs:
“It resonates across and through us because it sparks so many different forms of symbolic communication. But the point is what we remember are the words…we’re all isolated individuals, and when you hear some words which connect with how you’re feeling, then we absorb them, they become reference points for us.”
Jones feels strongly about the significance of lyrics, and it helps explain the reasons for Fender’s success. Despite the heavy usage of his melodies in TV adverts, Fender has come under criticism for ‘imitating’ the sound of Bruce Springsteen’s works. Fender has admitted in interviews that he grew up listening to Springsteen and is an artist who heavily inspired him. Although many point out similarities between the two, it is the frequent use of a saxophone, an instrument that seems to have become synonymous with the city of Newcastle over the years, that makes Fender’s melodies unique. His use of a saxophone, intertwined with his relatability and vulnerability has set him aside and led to three successive number-one albums in the UK, with ‘People Watching’ becoming the latest.
You can listen to the interview with Dr Mike Jones below:
Politics Hour 