Sam Fender - "Seventeen Going Under" (2021)

Earlier this year I went to see Sam Fender's Finsbury Park concert with some friends, and I had promised I would talk about this album, so I am finally getting round to doing it. I have to admit I wasn't initially onboard with Sam when he first broke through in 2019 with a couple of indie-lite, pop rock tunes being Will We Talk and Hyper Sonic Missiles. The bland chipper 'will you go home with me' lyrics and The Strokes reminiscent riff of the former felt very 'just-indie-enough' for daytime Radio 1, and the banal political commentary of the latter felt so tame and obvious. I decided I didn't need to check out his debut album, which was a shame as there is some pretty good tunes on it. My interest only really developed after the release of the lead single and title track of this record, his second. The song is very much a grower, being an earnest Springsteen-esque heartland rock epic about the trials and tribulations of growing up in a dead-end backwater UK town (in Sam's case it's his hometown of North Shields but it could apply to anywhere). The song is paced brilliantly, as each line of each verse builds the tension further, but there isn't actually a chorus to release that tension. Therefore you are left on a knife edge until the very end of the song where Sam howls "I'm seventeen going under" amidst swelling sax and roaring guitars. The song is so well written that you might not even notice this, as every line of the song is catchy and relatable enough to be the hook.

It opens up the record perfectly and the first half of the tracklist very much follows in its footsteps - albeit with more conventional song structures. Sam paints himself as an earnest everyman, not shying away from his darker side and his own troubles, but also not indulgently self-deprecating for the sake of edginess. The tracks a built off driving rhythm sections and roaring guitars, akin to Springsteen or U2, feature cathartic sing-along choruses, and build to their climaxes with soaring strings and swooning sax. The particular highlights are Getting Started and Get You Down. The joyous and resolute chord sequence and catchy as all hell chorus of Getting Started is like a shot of serotonin straight to the brain, whereas Get You Down's thoughtful lyrics reflecting on the impact Sam's past mistakes have had on a loved one are equally as gripping.

It's only at the midpoint where the record begins to slow down, with the back-to-back Spit Of You and Last To Make It Home. Spit Of You is a slower cut, replacing the roaring guitars for a jangly acoustic while Sam lays bare his troubled and difficult relationship he has with his father, and his yearning for are more honest and emotional connection with him. It's a heartfelt and relatable cut that really brings the album back down to Earth after the anthemia of the first half. Last To Make It Home slows it down even further, being a piano ballad about feeling lost in life, being the last to leave the bar at close and trying to seek validation and connection through social media. Sam sings it with such earnestness that it feels quite moving, although at over five minutes with only two verses and a long drawn out chorus it can drag a little.

Not all the songs here are introspective and personal tales, as like on his debut there are a couple of political tunes on here as well. And similarly to Hypersonic Missiles they don't really hit the mark. Aye is a wordy and driving rant on the untouchable powers that be behind the curtain of our elected political leaders, but in some ways it's too wordy for its own good - as in the first verse it stretches all the way from Boudica to Jeffery Epstein. I get the point of what Sam is saying here (being that these powers have always been in place) but it makes the song lack focus and it just descends into political disenfranchisement and nihilism, but it doesn't have any rallying hook or message to get behind to counter it. Another gripe I have with the song is that the driving guitars build and build tension, and when you think all that tension is going to explode into a pit worthy guitar solo or breakdown the track just kind of ends out the blue. Similarly Long Way Off's message of 'I think I'm on the right side but were still a long way off where we need to be' is again so banal and vague. Looking into the track, it's about the progressive abandonment of certain UK working class communities by Labour in the 2010's, which is a meaty topic, but Sam doesn't delve into it with any real depth, instead opting for the 'we need to think less rigidly and black and white' platitude.

The back half of the record very much follows on from the aesthetics of the first half, and so there aren't all that many surprises on it. There's a slow-burning ballad in the form of Mantra, and another driving anthemic cut being Paradigms. This song is definitely the most forgettable on the record, with the driving guitars, Sam's earnest delivery and climax of strings and sax pretty played out by this point on the record and I feel the bonus track Better Of Me should've made the cut instead (as it is easily the best of the bonus tracks and a real change of pace with its stripped back approach and warbling synth lines). The Leveller is a highlight of the second half with its pummelling drums and more immediate punky energy; as is the closer The Dying Light. It is another heart wrenching piano ballad in ode to the friends that he's lost to suicide, alongside the men he sees drinking their sorrows away in his hometown, as well as his own fears about the future and bringing children into the world where these cycles of generational trauma never seem to be broken. The track slowly brings itself out of this depression as Sam decides to not give in to the hopelessness the sake of his family and friends - both the ones he has lost and the ones that are still there with him.

Seventeen Going Under is a good, sometimes great album, that is a real step up from his debut. He's at his best when he's telling personal tails of relatable struggles, which is thankfully the majority of this record. I am a little concerned, however, of where Sam can go from here as the title track is by far the best track he has ever written and I'm not sure he can top it. Similarly, his style and aesthetic begins to wear out it's welcome by the end of the record (the bonus tracks, bar Better Of Me, are pretty unremarkable and I'm glad they weren't included on the main album), so only time will tell if he has enough good songs of this style in him to fill out a third record with the same quality.

Top Tracks: Seventeen Going Under, Getting Started, Get You Down, Spit Of You, The Leveller, The Dying Light

7/10