People Watching is the third studio album by English musician Sam Fender, released on 21 February 2025 on Polydor Records.[2] The album was co-produced by Adam Granduciel, Markus Dravs, and Fender himself, with additional production from his bandmates, Dean Thompson and Joe Atkinson.
According to Fender, the album explores "colourful stories and observations of everyday characters living their everyday, but often extraordinary, lives."[3] The album's lead single, "People Watching", was released on 15 November 2024.
Background and recording
On 3 August 2024, Fender premiered two songs of the upcoming album during a show at Plymouth Pavilions: "People Watching" and "Nostalgia's Lie".[4] On 13 November 2024, Fender announced his third album "People Watching" ahead of the release of the title track on 15 November 2024.[5]
During the album's recording process, Fender worked with Adam Granduciel, the frontman, founder and producer of the indie rock band The War on Drugs. Regarding working with Fender, Granduciel noted: "I fell in love with him. He’s a savant. Sam and the boys came out in March [2024] for about five weeks. We worked on some stuff they’d already started, then we worked on some more stuff from the ground up. It was awesome. I’d never met Sam, but we’d communicated once or twice. I have this picture above the sink in my kitchen, that I took of the boys. Sam, Joe [Atkinson], Dean [Thompson] and Drew, just hanging out in my studio. They inspire each other. It’s like my band: everyone can just sit there for fifteen hours and just hang. You don’t have a wildcard, everyone’s easy and loose, and musical, and good-hearted. It was a blast working together."[6] The War on Drugs are set to be an opening act during Fender's UK stadium shows at London Stadium and Newcastle's St James' Park.
The album's penultimate track, "Something Heavy", features additional vocals from Craig Finn, the frontman of the indie rock band The Hold Steady, with Fender set to appear on Finn's sixth studio album, Always Been, scheduled for release on April 4, 2025. Both albums were produced by Adam Granduciel concurrently.
Upon its release, People Watching received widespread acclaim from critics. On review aggregator Metacritic, the album holds a score of 84 out of 100 based on fifteen critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". In a five-star review in The Observer, Lisa Wright praised the album's honesty; calling it "a lonely document of fame, and of a man clinging on to the community his talents have propelled him away from. And where his previous album revealed Fender to be a songwriter of depth, People Watching explores life’s ugliness and finds excellence."[21]Alex Petridis of The Guardian also awarded the album five stars and named it his album of the week, praising Fender's songwriting: "strong on melodies...handy with a roaring, emotive, arena-friendly chorus, and exceptionally gifted with words".[22]
Critics praised the album's social realist storytelling; Roy Wilkinson of Mojo deemed it "a poignant portrait of post-industrial Britain – one that’s meditative rather than defeated",[23] while Sarah Jamieson of DIY, in a rave review, noted it as being "unafraid of delving into both the personal and political - and, at times, where the two very much intertwine... an album that burrows under the skin of current society and refuses to dress up its stark reality."[24]
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