Sam Fender’s “Wild Grey Ocean” Lyrics Meaning
Sam Fender’s “Wild Grey Ocean”, in a way, presents more answers than it does questions. For instance, it is never specified who the addressee is. However, the addressee is obviously someone who the singer shared a close relationship and mutual history with.
But on the other side of the coin, “Wild Grey Ocean” does sports a pretty-detailed narrative for a piece that’s so lyrically terse. But again, such details are more akin to those that you have to read between the lines and interpret metaphors in order to understand.
Actually, such analytical skills are necessary to make sense out of all of the passages except for the second verse. In the second verse, Sam laments the unfaithfulness of what appears to be his hometown homeys.
One blatant example he uses to illustrate their lack of substance was ‘his brother getting jumped’ and apparently seriously wounded in process, with this being an incident in which the vocalist’s friends obviously didn’t help him.
That particular tale is indicative of how Sam feels about the ‘hood in general, i.e. “the coast town” where he resides. The situation is presented such that he is basically a working stiff, and as implied in the second verse, his social life is also very much less-than-ideal. As such, “the wild grey ocean” being “buried in (his) eyes” is, as alluded to in the chorus, symbolic of the vocalist’s overall depression and disillusionment with his current setting.
And it must also be pointed out that said feelings of melancholy are exacerbated by the absence of the addressee, a loved one who apparently got fed up with the town and went his or her own separate way.
Release of “Wild Grey Ocean”
Sam Fender is a British musician of whom both of his studio LPs thus far, 2019’s “Hypersonic Missiles” and 2021’s “Seventeen Going Under”, have topped the UK Albums Chart.
It is from the “Live Deluxe Edition” of the latter that we get “Wild Grey Ocean”. This is a song which Polydor Records issued as a single on 25 October 2022. Interesting to note is that the song was launched over a year after the standard of “Seventeen Going Under” came out.
It is officially the album’s 8th single. The seven other singles from this album are as follows:
- “Alright”
- “Getting Started”
- “The Dying Light”
- “Long Way Off”
- “Spit of You”
- “Get You Down”
- “Seventeen Going Under”
Credits
“Wild Grey Ocean” was written entirely by Sam Fender,.
FYI, Sam already has a couple of Brit Awards, including one for Best British Alternative/Rock Act.
