First we had Shakespeare, then we got Chaucer, now Sam Fender's at it with the idiomatic verse set to shake the nation. Granted, 'I can't see the wood from the trees' was not coined by Newcastle's' Sam Fender but by slotting the familiar idiom between his lyrics, Fender critiques a nation blinded by superficiality. So involved in the details (wood), we miss the most important and overall image (tree). Each verse depicts, not so much anger, but disappointment in a world obsessed, and therefore doomed by a desire for surface level commodities. The chorus, 'how am i supposed to change it when I can't see the wood from the trees' is so self-aware, so honest about being a part of the world he critiques.
Although the song title suggests a dig at the most significant conglomerate family on the planet, the Kardashians are not the source of the problem. Fender does not personally shame Kim, Kourtney and Ko.; they are merely caricatures, deliberately flattened by a TV screen known to us as celebrity culture. In this generation, reality television is a fictional promise. As a result of fake reality, when reality occurs, we are left with imposter syndrome, as likes and dislikes do not fuel real life, we've become a stranger to our existence. Perhaps I've read into the lyrics a little more profound than expected, but I think every millennial can admit to, at least once in their lives, prioritising social media stats over sleep.
Midway through Poundshop Kardashians, the realisation hits that Fenders words not only comment upon the desensitised present but the disillusioned future, a future where individuality is two-dimensional and viewed through a phone screen. The last verse hits home with a paradox of how young people see mental health. At one end of the scale, social media creates a platform for those suffering to speak up. Yet on the journey to a better understanding of depression and anxiety, celebrity culture is somewhat ignored. Once the blue tick arrives on Twitter or Instagram, celebrities expose themselves to the reflective side of the two-way mirror, where metaphorical floodgates open to online abuse. 'Eulogise them on the internet when they top themselves' creates a poignant image which captures the duplicity of the internet. As a consumer, we forget that a celebrity, modelled in this case by a Kardashian is first and foremost a human. Whether they are your cup of tea or not, the aftermath of celebrity culture is more damaging than the celebrities themselves. All in all, the song is a refreshing take on how the nation hypothetically digests then regurgitates these 'idolised idiots'. They are not the root of the problem, we, the consumer are.
