"Live from Finsbury Park" and "Underneath Seventeen Deluxe Edition" by Sam Fender (Geffen)
When you're an artist in the rock scene, releasing a live album is really exciting. But that's exactly what Sam Fender did with Live from Finsbury Park.
It turned out to be a very good idea.
Because the album, recorded at an outdoor concert in London in July, will whet the appetite of a global audience that has discovered Fender's fast, hard rock 'n' roll but had to see it in person. He released it on vinyl in 2021 along with a deluxe CD edition of Seventeen Going Under, which included two solid new versions.
Tickets will now be more difficult to obtain.
Hailing from a working-class seaside town in northeast England, Fender has been compared to Bruce Springsteen in his music. He is honest. In an interview, he admitted that Springsteen was his favorite artist, although he said the comparisons were not good for him.
The similarities show more in concert than in his studio work. The sound of 45,000 people belting out every line of Fender's brilliant "Seventeen Going Under" will sound familiar to Springsteen fans. “After the band stopped playing, the tunes were great.
But Fender is no imitator. He is so direct and honest in his performance that he communicates with the audience in a unique way. His voice is distinctly British and he writes rare folk songs and sings them with passion and conviction.
He sings about his father in "Spit of You" ("I could talk to anyone, but I can't talk to you") and mental illness in "Dead Boys" and the youth he grew up with. t about management. It talks about difficult relationships, loss of family members, faith, hope and regret. His experience is unique, but he makes it feel universal.
Fender has performed in New York and Los Angeles, but canceled North American gigs earlier this year to rehabilitate his mental health. This new music ensures that the listener is there when they are ready to sing along.
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