As much as Fender bares his tattered heart and sketches the pride and poverties of his country and community as artfully as ever, the songwriting plods more than it ricochets, while the floatation tank production cushions and smothers his passion, highlighting any existing blandness.
North Shields’ answer to Bruce Springsteen is back with stories of his tattered heart and the pride and poverties of his country – but the songwriting on his latest album plods more than it ricochets.
Beyond Oasis and The War on Drugs themselves, the sonic mood board of tracks such as “Arm’s Length”, “Crumbling Empire” and the religion-baiting “Little Bit Closer” contains The Waterboys, Hothouse Flowers, Foreigner, Bryan Adams, maybe The Killers if drained of all personality and pizzazz, leaving only the pomp.
As he was rocketed into the head-spinning, highly pressurised sphere of festival headline sets, hometown stadium shows and voice-of-a-generation expectations by the platinum success of his 2021 second album Seventeen Going Under, personal cracks became deep fissures.
Fender’s fame is built on a (slightly questionable) rep as the North Shields Springsteen, drenching Tyneside trials and tenderness in big sky bombast.
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