He’s set for a good year. After bursting onto the scene last year, Sam Fender has gone from strength to strength. From the FIFA 19 soundtrack to winning the BRITS Critics Choice Award, he is setting himself up for a seismic 2019. And this all starts with his first new music this year, in the form of this single, Hypersonic Missiles.
Having grown up in North Shields in North East England, this has helped shape some of his previous songs. A guitar-forward singer-songwriter for this generation, Fender often brings in a cacophony of instruments to amplify his songs to stadium anthems. He is a graduate of the BBC Sound of 2018 list, a notorious list that has picked up some of the biggest stars in the world before your grandma knew who they were. With fellow alumni that year including newly chart-topping Lewis Capaldi and global sensation Khalid, Fender is silently working hard, constantly touring and releasing music that he feels is right.
Hypersonic Missiles falls into that category and is certainly a big anthem to kickstart 2019 (albeit a week into March). His slightly roughened but powerful vocals kick off immediately with a guitar to lead him to the first hook where the drums and bass really get going and you are instantly transported to summer 2019 with Sam Fender in front of you on a stage in the sunshine. It seems a perfect fit for festivals, and he’s given people enough time to master that “this is a high time for hypersonic missiles” before they’re drinking Dark Fruits in a field.
For such an upbeat song, he is tackling some serious stuff. He talks about being in a rat race, ruled by the American corporate machine and blissfully unaware of “kids in Gaza” and other global tragedies and issues that are less important than eating McDonald’s. Oddly, he seems to be inciting war, claiming that for all of this, maybe it is time for those titular missiles. Play God was in a similar vein, and it’s this subject matter that Fender isn’t afraid to shy away from that sets him apart from his peers and what will, many years down the line, see him still on that festival stage, with fans still screaming his meaningful lyrics back at him.
Spotify Playlist Link: https://spoti.fi/2CKuVex
A Song A Day 