Sam Fender has announced that a deluxe edition of his third album ‘People Watching‘ will be released this year.
The deluxe version of the album will be out on December 5.
This comes after the album won the 2025 Mercury Prize.
Earlier this year, Sam Fender released the album with a collection of 11 songs including “People Watching”, “Rein Me In”, and “Arm’s Length,”
Including the Elton John collaboration, the deluxe version will include eight additional tracks: three new, previously unheard songs, and tracks from Sam’s Record Store Day exclusive EP ‘Me and The Dog‘.
‘People Watching’ has been praised for its honesty, heart, and ambition, being described as “cohesive, bold, and deeply moving.” when he won the Mercury Prize for it.
He told the crowd it felt “surreal and beautiful” to accept the prize in his home region, in front of local fans and his family.
Before the announcement of the deluxe version of the album, there was a countdown on his website which fans speculated could have been counting down until the deluxe album is released.
When talking about the song ‘Talk To You‘, Sam Fender said, “Talk to you was written during the People Watching sessions at British Grove – It’s a song about the end of a long relationship – about the regret, the mistakes and the lessons that come with it.”
“It’s that feeling of losing your best friend, and coming to terms with that. I was playing around with the riff and thought what I need is a really good pianist and then hmmm, I wonder who I can call? And of course, who better than Elton John.”
Elton John also shared his thoughts on the collaboration, saying: “Sam was writing and recording in a studio in West London, and called to say he’d written a song with a piano riff that he thought would sound great with me playing it. I couldn’t resist, and it was so much fun playing it for him.”
“I truly love Sam. He’s been a friend for many, many years and it’s incredible to see him grow into being a truly world class artist.”
The deluxe version of album will include songs which Sam said, “weren’t included in the line up of the first record but deserved to be out there.”
Fans can pre-order and pre-save the deluxe album here.
The additional tracklisting for ‘People Watching Deluxe‘ is:
‘I’m Always On Stage’
‘Talk To You (feat. Elton John)’
‘Fortuna’s Wheel’
‘Rein Me In (with Olivia Dean)’
‘Me and The Dog’
‘Tyrants’
‘The Treadmill’
‘Empty Spaces’
