Listen to Sam Fender’s euphoric and hopeful new single, ‘People Watching’

nme.com:

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.