by emma schoors
Sam Fender’s ascent to worldwide attention is inevitable, and Seventeen Going Under is a lyrically pristine second album from the North Shields-based musician.
“I remember the sickness was forever,” Fender confesses seconds into the title track, not collapsing in a rasp or yell; instead switching between high and low notes, as if the recollections are both of the highest and lowest moments of his life. Every lyric after is packed to the brim with uncomfortable truth, and the closeness of “Seventeen Going Under” to Fender both as a song and as an album is clear by the time the first track bursts into, “…Well, luck came and died 'round here / I see my mother, the DWP see a number.”
The second single released from and third track on the album is “Aye,” a stinging commentary on how the working class is broken apart over issues that should be further reason to unite. “It’s a rant about my disdain for the greedy tax-dodging billionaires of the world among other things,” Fender explained in an August Instagram post promoting the single. This justified anger carries into the thundering “Long Way Off”: “I heard a hundred million voices sound the same both left and right / We're still a long way off.”
Fender pays homage to his father in “Spit Of You.” One of the lighter tracks musically, “It’s about how the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as I get further into my twenties I see so much of myself in him, especially when it comes to being stubborn,” Fender wrote. “If anything, it is a declaration of my love for him.” Love is a blinding theme throughout the entire record, but Fender recognizes how he sometimes falls short of loving himself in “Last To Make It Home:” “Though I am a soundboard to some / With myself I am not so forgiving.”
One of the many highlights of the album is “The Leveller,” a vocally divine track spotlighted by thumping drums and adrenaline-driven lyrics. “The fear is the closest thing to fun that I have,” Fender sings, a reflection that most wouldn’t be able to verbalize, which seems to be a common thread in his lyricism. If there’s one track that’s a must-listen for those struggling with the need to belong, it’s “Mantra.” Fender pleads with himself, “Please stop tryin' to find comfort in these sociopaths / Their beauty is exclusively on the surface / As they pull you side to side with all their drugs and who's who stories.” Growing up, more specifically how non-linear it is, is a deep-rooted centerpiece of the album, and Fender approaches it beautifully in “The Dying Light” and “Better Of Me.”
Seventeen Going Under is Sam Fender’s latest masterpiece, solidifying his reputation as one of the strongest artists this decade has seen.