ʜʏᴘᴇʀsᴏɴɪᴄ ᴍɪssɪʟᴇs

Hypersonic Missiles is the debut album of Sam Fender who is new to the indie music scene. It was released in 2019 by the singer who won the Brits Critic’s Choice Award in 2018 before the release of an album. The album debuted at number 1 on the UK Official Album Charts and includes hit singles such as “Dead Boys”, “Play God” and “That Sound.” Fender has often said that he draws a lot of inspiration from Bruce Springsteen and it is clear in this album due to the lyrics he has written, which focus on struggles of growing up in a working-class society.

The album’s track title, “Hypersonic Missiles” is a song which is very relevant in today’s world as Fender sings about the war threats, political problems and global warming that we hear about everyday but we all in a way choose to ignore. Sam Fender has said the narrator of the song is a complete “tin foil hatter” who is convinced the world is going to end and capitalism is to blame for a lot of it, but they still buy into all of the consumerism. Although the song is filled with such heavy topics and depressing realisations about the world, there is still an liveliness to it due to the guitar riffs which are inspired by the hits of British rock music and also the sense in the lyrics that although the world is ending we need to make sure we’re living our lives to the fullest and still having fun.

My other two top tracks on this album have to be “Saturday” and “The Borders.” “Saturday” is about the struggles of the working class and the wish for the working week to be over so that the weekend can come and you can forget about all the stress. The song is relatable to a lot of the British people and in Fender’s voice, you can hear his anger about the inequality of the social classes which makes it special. “The Borders” is about two friends who went through everything together when they were younger but eventually grew apart, the guitar riff in the song has Springsteen vibes and the added saxophone in the instrumental makes the music composition as interesting as the lyrics.