Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.This is a big year for Sam Fender. Stadiums await in the summer, confirmation of his rise to the heights of British rock. It follows the success of 2019’s Hypersonic Missiles and 2021’s Seventeen Going Under. They drew on his difficult upbringing in North Shields, a hard-knocks coastal town near Newcastle.Fender’s hometown looks east over the North Sea. However, his music executes an about-turn. It soars westwards, towards the wide open land of Bruce Springsteen and The War on Drugs. His songs have an expansive can-do spirit, even as they dramatise the can’t-do lives of the left-behind. The result is a charismatic blend of widescreen escapism and kitchen-sink social realism.People Watching is his third album. In contrast to the marginalised characters in his songs, high expectations are placed on it. That creates a challenge for Fender. The stadium circuit he will shortly be joining represents a different community from the one in his songs. It is a fuzzier constituency, joined in temporary union by generic expressions of togetherness, like chants and singalongs. The world is gained, but at the risk of losing one’s soul.The album opens with a reminder of where the 30-year-old has come from. The title track brims with his signature sound, all motor rhythms and arms-flung-wide emotions. The “Geordie Springsteen” unleashes his leading-man’s vibrato in defiance of a callous “treadmill” world. It is an irresistible anthem. But although joined by a formative influence as co-producer, The War on Drugs’ Adam Granduciel, Fender resists the temptation to continue further with the winning formula of his previous work.“Nostalgia’s Lie” is about wanting to return to a lost state of innocence. It switches to a classic British indie jangle, reminiscent of The Stone Roses but without the groove. “Chin Up”, which bears the impression of Oasis and The Verve, also fails to convince. But then Fender finds his feet again.“Wild Long Lie” is a mandolin-led epic about a drug-bingeing protagonist with “so much pain here, so much love”, culminating in the redemptive breakthrough of a guitar solo. “Arm’s Length” and “Crumbling Empire” are classic rock with smoothly ticking beats, rippling riffs and vocals full of feeling. “TV Dinner” changes register to a synthesiser-based brooder. “Remember My Name” evokes the soundworld of colliery brass bands in a tear-jerker about home and separation. The big stage beckons, but Fender has kept his soul.★★★★☆‘People Watching’ is released by Polydor