Hugely popular, especially after his 2019 debut Hypersonic Missiles, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter from North Shields builds on this with further Springsteen-style huge choruses and sax-decorated melodies and Strokes turns, but now with edgier, more personal lyrics. Singing still in a Geordie accent, and with the title track touching on teenage anxiety and the hardships he remembers of his sick mother struggling to claim benefits, this may still sound mostly like an rousing feelgood album musically with many punch-the-air, big-crowd moments, but Fender’s lyrics this time stem more of the sense of nihilism in a post-Brexit broken Britain. “I was far too scared to hit him /But I would hit him in a heartbeat now /That's the thing with anger, it begs to stick around /So it can fleece you of your beauty,” he sings in the second verse of the title track. “Stung by the stillness of it all / Waitin' in vain for the almighty crash/ As little England rips itself to pieces,” on The Leveller. Other standouts include the gentler, more acoustic Spit of You, the howling, scratchy post-punk indie number Howdon Aldi Death Queue, and the piano ballad-style The Dying Light. Out on Polydor.
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