Dead Boys

Sam Fender releases his debut EP Dead Boys via Polydor Records. The young North Shields musician, whose lyrics tackle hard-hitting subjects of social importance and generational significance, are broadly drawn from his experiences growing up on Tyneside. The content is significant, and wrapped in rousing, propulsive, arena-sized anthems.

Having sneaked onto the BBC Sound of 2018 shortlist with only a couple of songs out in the ether, Sam’s come good on the initial buzz whilst 2019 already looks his for the taking. There’s an edge to Fender’s songs that can also make him tremble. The surging, urgent Dead Boys deals explicitly with male suicide and mental health issues, and has caused outpourings of emotion among a growing band of followers. All of Sam’s songs tend to feature a resonance and socially-aware, socially-pertinent message. It’s what helps to define him, and makes him leap-frog the endless slew of winsome singer-songwriters that sound fine, but have precisely nothing to say for themselves.

Leave Fast is slower, plaintive chords allowing lines about boy racers, sand dunes and shitty pubs to bring the stark images of Fender’s hometown to life. The spiky riffing on Poundshop Kardashians finds Fender struggling to make sense of vacuous celebrity and the throwaway nature of vast swathes of modern culture. The Dead Boys EP finds space for a thank you to music itself. His next gambit, the seismic That Sound, wriggles and bangs through a melody that supports the big-hearted idea that music keeps Sam Fender on the straight and narrow. It’s always been his only viable option.

LP - 180 Gram Vinyl with Download.