Who the heck is this Sam Fender kid? is what I asked myself a few months back when I saw the name doing rounds. Initially I was a bit sceptical seeing this kid who i had no previous knowledge of getting the chance to play on Later.. sell out his UK tours and have his EP constantly promoted to me on my Twitter timeline. Yet after seeing some positive murmurs on the AF Gang group page* I decided to give him a go. I was pleasantly surprised to find that his debut 'Dead Boys' EP is a rather brilliant collection of rock songs. Not another bearded guy hiding behind a keyboard or a sad girl playing a piano. The fact that he recently won a Brit Award only seems stranger. The critics that chose the likes of James Bay, Emelie Sande and Sam Smith as the next big things actually chose a guy making rock music to join those lofty ranks. Listening back to the 'Dead Boys' EP It's obvious that he's living up to the hype, with a small set of sharp indie rock songs, that comment on the suicide epidemic (Dead Boys), celebrity culture (Poundshop Kardashians) and small town life. Not only is he writing great songs but he also has a fair bit to say. So when Annie Mac announced that his track 'Hypsersonic Missiles' was her Hottest track in the world'. I was expecting to be disappointing. Will this be the slump that follows the initial promise? thankfully I couldn't be more wrong. 'Hypersonic Missiles' is evidence that Sam is Tyneside's answer to Bruce Springsteen. An anthemic wide screen rock n roll song which perfectly captures what it feels like to be a millennial. In his interview with Annie Mac, Sam stated that the song was written from the point of view of an imagined character and inspired by news reports. Yet it's hard to not instantly relate to lines such as "We're probably due another war with all this ire, I'm not smart enough to change a thing, I've no answers, only questions, don't you ask a thing". Even the chorus rings true with dark despair as Sam sings "Oh, silver tongue suits and cartoons, they rule my world... it's a high time for hypersonic missiles... And when the bombs drop, darling, can you say that you've lived your life?" and then the sax solo kicks in. It's got the whooaooahh.. sing along parts, even that twinkly background noise that is present in many Springsteen songs. Put simply, Sam Fender is living up to the hype.
Much like The 1975's recent masterpiece 'Love it if we made it', 'Hypersonic Missiles' revives the sound of 80's pop but also the paranoid mood of that era. We live in strange and difficult times and with 'Hypersonic Missles' Sam Fender has delivered a song that will help define the decade. A cry for help that demands to be heard again and again and again....
*Online community of IDLES fans
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