Hypersonic Missiles

Raised on a council estate in North Shields, England from the age of 10, Sam Fender took solace in the music of Bruce Springsteen, finding common ground between Springsteen’s Asbury Park and hardship in his own hometown. Now 25 and a songwriter himself, Fender landed a deal with Polydor and won the Critics’ Choice award at this year’s BRITs before he’d released his first album. When he takes a swing at “pop machine” artifice, or milquetoast peers like James Bay or Ed Sheeran, it’s not just outsider posturing—except that Fender now finds himself on the inside. Label executives have heralded Hypersonic Missiles, his debut album, as the second coming of Bruce. But though Fender’s commitment to addressing serious social issues sets him apart, the well-intentioned Missiles is only intermittently transcendent.