Sam Fender - 'Hypersonic Missiles'
Sam Fender burst onto the radar last year and he hasn’t slowed down since. He’s released his debut EP, ‘Dead Boys’, won the Critic’s Choice Award at the 2018 Brits and was named as ‘one to watch’ on almost every list made in 2018. Today, he releases his newest single ‘Hypersonic Missiles’, and it’s nothing short of the stadium ready rock we have come to expect from this Geordie lad.
‘Hypersonic Missiles’ instantly feels less dark and brooding than the Sam Fender we’re used to. Opening with just a guitar and Sam’s vocals, the track slowly builds into a chorus you can’t help but move to and one that wouldn’t feel out of place filling arenas. The track features a bridge that hear’s Sam declare “this world is gonna end but till then, I’ll give you everything I have”, and he does exactly that, with a punch of saxophone that carries you through the rest of the track.
Like Sam’s last single ‘Play God’ - which Sam has said he wrote after reading George Orwell’s 1984 and feeling a bit scared of the world - ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ is a bold statement of building fear about the current state of the world. Lyrics like “I’m not the first to live with wool over my eyes” mirror the feelings in ‘Play God’, while a lot of the track speaks of fears that we’re “due another war”. What is impressive though, is that this isn’t a dark twisty depressing song. Sam turns it around, finishing with a pounding chorus and a feeling that yes, the world might be ending, but until then we can afford to have a bit of fun.
Words by Megan Smith