To quote the Smiths, fame fame fatale fame, it can play hideous tricks on the brain.
Thats whats happening in the album-opening title track fromPeople Watching, the third LP by U.K. pop-rock starSam Fender.
Fender hails from tough, working-class North Shields, near Newcastle.
Mac Scott*
His2019 debutHypersonic Missilestopped the charts in the U.K., as did its 2021 follow-up,Seventeen Going Under.
Its a world he evokes with real empathy and honest ambivalence.
They reared me as a class clown/Grass fed little cash cow, he crows.
Fender hasnt written his version ofThe Riveryet.
But hes sweating his way in that direction.
