(Credits: Far Out / NASA / Uwe Conrad)
Sat 13 December 2025 23:00, UK
2025 has perhaps been the year, out of all the 2020s so far, where indie and rock has taken the tightest grip of the sonic world.Â
Of course, a large element of that can be attributed to the fires of Britpop reigniting themselves in the form of the Oasis reunion tour and Pulp returning with their first new music in almost a quarter of a century. Nostalgia has no doubt reigned supreme, but the newer kids on the block also know how to get the job done.
There’s been a massive flock to bands like Geese, screaming adoration for The Last Dinner Party, and Wet Leg are continuing on the seismic rise. But aside from bands, there has been one solo artist who has taken the crown for the year with one head-turning album, winning over the love of critics and fans as his journey keeps on soaring.
Of course, that could only be Sam Fender. For around the past six years, ever since his debut Hypersonic Missiles in 2019, he has been the unerring name hot on the lips of seemingly every conversation. Taking the title of the Newcastle reincarnation of Bob Dylan, or Bruce Springsteen, or any other warbling wordsmith you can imagine, his imprint on the scene is now so indelible that it will never fade.Â
This year was no different in terms of deepening that dent, but Fender did so with the added bomb of force that was his third album, People Watching. Becoming the UK’s best-selling album of the year from its release in February up until July, we can make the pretty confident assertion, in turn, that it is the best-selling indie album of 2025, too. It would be a mammoth effort to upset that now, surely.
What made People Watching the best-selling indie album of 2025?
Gathering itself a broken record within its first week of release alone, the 107,000 units that Fender shifted in those first seven days was testament to the rapture that the record gained across the board. By the time it reached July, the album had attracted more than 120,000 pure sales, according to the Official Charts Company, as well as being the best-selling album of the year for physical copies, with 115,000 sales.
It was light work for Fender amid all the plaudits that rushed in his direction. People Watching bagged him his third consecutive number one album, and with it the recognition that he is undoubtedly the singular indie rock force of a generation. He is a symbol of truth within noise, hope against darkness, and it’s this light which attracts more and more fans in their droves.
By the end of the year, it would be easy for the singer-songwriter to kick back and relax, knowing he can stick his feet up for a while now he has secured the acclaim of the masses forever through the power of a pivotal record. But then, he could only go and win the Mercury Prize to top that all off. Flanked by a Newcastle crowd, that moment was the homecoming of a king, and the cementing of a bona fide star.Â
People Watching may be the best-selling indie album of the year, but there’s no room for Fender to now get complacent. He has set a precedent for himself as being the mouthpiece for the worker and the everyman; it would go against everything he has worked towards to lose that. So, in the spirit of the audience he represents, it’s time to get his head back down in the studio.
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