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SAM FENDER 
‘SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER’ 
Album Out Now

This Week’s
TRIPLE J
Feature Album

Shares ‘SPIT OF YOU’ Clip

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Photo: Charlotte Patmore

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“Urgent, incisive and brave”  ***** -The Guardian

“This is very special indeed”  ***** – DORK

“A towering piece of work… one of this generation’s truly great songwriters”  8/10 – The Line of Best Fit

“Lyrics worthy of a real listen” 8/10 – Clash

“Stunning”  **** – Rolling Stone

**** – NME

9/10 – RIOT Mag

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The much anticipated second album from UK’s Sam Fender ‘Seventeen Going Under’, recorded in Sam’s hometown of North Shields and produced with long-time collaborator Bramwell Bronte, is out now via Dew Process / UMA – including soaring hits ‘Get You Down’, ‘Spit Of You’, ‘Aye’ and the thumping title track where it all began ‘Seventeen Going Under’.

In exciting news, Triple J has unveiled that ‘Seventeen Going Under’ will be this week’s feature album – you can check out Sam’s chat with Richard Kingsmill on 2021 here

Sam has also shared the new clip to latest single ‘Spit Of You’, a tear-jerking reflection of a fractured relationship between father and son, directed by the award-winning Philip Barantini (Band of Brothers, Chernobyl, Humans).

Sam says of the clip: “Stephen Graham is genuinely one of the best actors this country has ever seen, and such a lovely bloke. I’m fucking so buzzing about it, it’s so beast! I was out of my comfort zone but it was the most amazing experience I’ve ever had. Thanks so much to Phil Barantini for making this beauty come to life”

You don’t need to be intimately acquainted with his backstory to realise Sam Fender’s own life isn’t short of material to draw from. Press play on ‘Seventeen Going Under’ and in the surging double-header of the title track and ‘Gettin’ Started’ you can hear the beats of his own story, his journey from North Shields and his own battles pounding through the music’s euphoric rush. You can practically feel the wind blowing in your face as the motor starts running and the vista of a life unfolding opens up ahead of you.

Like only a truly great songwriter can, Fender turns his own experience into art that speaks to, and resonates with, all of us. It’s why his songs mean so much to people. On the soaring ‘Get You Down’, he might be looking unflinchingly at his own failures as a partner, yet as listeners we can all recognise something of ourselves within its New Order-meets-The E Street Band jangle. Similarly, you don’t need to have experienced the same sort of relationship with a parent or family member that inspired the heart-crushing new single ‘Spit Of You’ to enjoy the fact that it’s the most moving songs written about the relationship between a father and son for decades.

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Though in relative terms ‘Seventeen Going Under’ is coming under two years after ‘Hypersonic Missiles’, Fender’s songwriting is lightyears ahead here. Musically, the songs are far more nuanced, more detailed and more textured than before. Be it the plaintive piano blues of ‘Last To Make It Home’s’ closing-time regret, the modal strings that swirl around the ‘The Leveller’s’ pounding confusion or the enormous boom and crunch of ‘Long Way Off’’s state of the world address, there’s a far wider scope of sounds and styles on display here, and the deftness with which Fender incorporates them is dazzling.

A great example of just how far he’s come as a writer is ‘Aye’. A track Fender sees as a follow up to ‘Hypersonic Missiles’’ polemical broadside ‘White Privilege’. Compare the two to see how much more sophisticated he’s become as a lyricist, unafraid to move in grey areas and face ambiguities in a way that actually reflects what it’s like to be a human through these troubling and confusing times.

If the album’s first half largely mirrors Fender’s own story, its second deals with the toll life and your own feelings of self-worth can take. There’s a gentle feeling of joy within the War On Drugs-like ‘Mantra’ as it speaks of the importance of learning to love and accept yourself, while the explosive, widescreen sweep of ‘Paradigms’ is a powerful reminder that the toxicity than can unfairly extinguish lives is sadly still with us. The empathy within is palatable as Fender reaches out a hand, repeating the lyric “no one should feel like this”.

Perhaps the most important song on the record, however, is closing track ‘The Dying Light’. A piano-led epic that revisits the bars and promenades of North Shields and sees the ghosts in the town still there, the dead boys that still keep growing in number, but comes to the powerful conclusion that as human beings we owe it to ourselves and everyone we love to keep fighting, that life will triumph. It’s a remarkable end to a remarkable album.

“This album is a coming of age story. It’s about growing up. It’s a celebration of life after hardship, it’s a celebration of surviving,” reflects Fender. “I think it’s fucking leagues ahead of the first one.”

‘Seventeen Going Under’ is a celebration of life itself and is a triumph on every count.

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SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER 
TRACK-LISTING:

Seventeen Going Under
Getting’ Started
Aye
Get You Down
Long Way Off
Spit Of You
Last To Make It Home
The Leveller
Mantra
Paradigms
The Dying Light

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Photo Credit – JACK WHITEFIELD

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Follow SAM FENDER
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AMNPLIFY – LF