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Sam Fender announces third album ‘People Watching’

Get ready: Fender's third album arrives early next year.

By Nick Reilly

Sam Fender
Sam Fender, 2024 (Picture: Mac Scott)

Sam Fender has announced details of his new album People Watching, which is set for release early next year.

The third record from the North Shields singer follows on from 2021’s acclaimed Seventeen Going Under, which saw him grace the first ever cover of Rolling Stone UK in the run-up to its release.

Now, he’s confirmed that the follow-up will arrive on February 21 via Polydor Records. Fender produced the record alongside bandmates Dean Thompson and Joe Atkinson over two years, working firstly in London in 2023 with producer Markus Dravs, and then earlier this year in Los Angeles with The War on Drugs’ Adam Granduciel, after they were seen in the studio together.

According to an official release, the record marks Fender’s “next step forward – colourful stories and observations of everyday characters living their everyday, but often extraordinary, lives.”

Fender also debuted the record’s upbeat title track during a headline set at Boardmasters Festival over the summer, as well as a second song now confirmed to be on the record called ‘Nostalgia’s Lie’.

There’s a touching local link for Fender in the artwork, which was shot by the renowned social documentary photographer Tish Murtha, who grew up in South Shields and documented marginalised communities and working-class life in Newcastle upon Tyne.

In an interview with Mark Knopfler and Brian Johnson, Fender said of his next record: “We have been recording and recording and making loads of stuff but it got to the point where I thought, ‘We don’t need to get this out yet. We need to get it right’.

“For the second one [Seventeen Going Under], we rushed to get that out and the third one we started rushing and I thought, ‘No, we have got to take the time’.

“I want to do the best I possibly can. I’d rather it be late and great than early and shite,” he added. “What we have got so far I am absolutely over the moon with but I want to give it that bit more time and more thought.”

He’ll also head out on an arena tour this December, with all dates now sold out.

Pre-order the album here and check out the tracklist in full below.

Album Tracklisting:

‘People Watching’
‘Nostalgia’s Lie’
‘Chin Up’
‘Wild Long Lie’
‘Arm’s Length’
‘Crumbling Empire’
‘Little Bit Closer’
‘Rein Me In’
‘TV Dinner’
‘Something Heavy’
‘Remember My Name’