While sporting a warmer, more euphonious vocal quality and representing Newcastle, U.K. rather than the working class of New Jersey, socially conscious singer/songwriter Sam Fender drew frequent comparisons to major influence Bruce Springsteen with his first two studio albums, both chart-toppers in his homeland. If anything, his third full-length, People Watching, is even more evocative of '80s AOR and peak commercial Springsteen, with saxophone-bolstered arrangements that summon the E Street Band and with help from producers including the War on Drugs' Adam Granduciel and Markus Dravs (whose résumé includes the likes of such earnest-anthem rockers as Kings of Leon and Coldplay). With Fender staying grounded after his success, People Watching finds him turning his lens away from his formative years (previous album Seventeen Going Under) and outward to the everyday lives of working people. Far from drab or sentimental, the results are often bright, robust, and admiring, an attitude that's established on an opening title track that begins with the words, "I people-watch on the way back home/Envious of the glimmer of hope/Gives me a break from feeling alone." That song's sleek blend of guitars and keys and solid drums underscore just one of the album's many hooky, ardent anthems, this one about noticing "Everybody on the treadmill, runnin'" during his travels. Elsewhere, the strings-enhanced midtempo rocker "Chin Up" catalogs the suffering all around (friends in pain, people losing their homes and jobs, a cold newborn) in verses leading up to a striding chorus that nevertheless refuses to minimize ("Chin up, I'm dancing to the rhythm of it/Sometimes it's healthier to wallow in it"), and the more vulnerable "Rein Me In" powers through both musically and lyrically, only asking, "If I stop, it's just pain/Please don't rein me in." As Fender continues to deliver compassionate power hook after hook, not significantly bringing down the energy until the album's hymn-like, orchestral closer ("Remember My Name"), he seems a little more relaxed on People Watching, even indulging in some studio outtakes with his band, and offering comfort and recognition more than a call to action. For those who lived through the '80s, part of that comfort may be the vague, fleeting notion that maybe they've heard these songs before, something that's at least as much a product of the production values in place as the songs themselves. ~ Marcy Donelson