Seventeen Going Under

Seventeen Going Under is the second studio album by English musician Sam Fender. The album was released on 8 October 2021 through Polydor Records. The album explores Fender's upbringing and how it has impacted who he is today, exploring both his outward nihilism as well as his internal self-examination. Three singles were released ahead of the album: the title track, "Get You Down" and "Spit of You".

For the title track, see Seventeen Going Under (song).

Seventeen Going Under
Studio album by
Sam Fender
Released8 October 2021
RecordedDecember 2020 – February 2021
StudioGrouse Lodge, Ireland
Genre
Length45:17
LabelPolydor
ProducerBramwell Bronte
Sam Fender chronology
Hypersonic Missiles
(2019)		 Seventeen Going Under
(2021)
Singles from Seventeen Going Under
  1. "Seventeen Going Under"
    Released: 7 July 2021[6]
  2. "Get You Down"
    Released: 8 September 2021[7]
  3. "Spit of You"
    Released: 27 September 2021
  4. "Long Way Off"
    Released: 8 October 2021
  5. "The Dying Light"
    Released: 14 December 2021
  6. "Getting Started"
    Released: 17 April 2022
  7. "Alright"
    Released: 15 July 2022
  8. "Wild Grey Ocean"
    Released: 25 October 2022
  9. "Little Bull Of Blithe"
    Released: 9 December 2022

The album received universal acclaim from music critics and was also a commercial success becoming Fender's second number one album in the UK Albums Chart and Scottish albums chart. It also peaked at number 4 in the Irish albums chart. NME named Seventeen Going Under the best album of 2021, topping their year-end list, and was named the best indie rock album of 2021 by PopMatters. The album also received a nomination at the 42nd Brit Awards in the British Album of the Year category[8] and won the awards for Best Album by a UK Artist and Best Album in the World at the 2022 NME Awards.[9] The album was nominated for the 2022 Mercury Prize.[10]

Background

On 7 July 2021, Fender announced his second album, Seventeen Going Under and released the title track as the lead single.[11] The single focuses on the time Fender was seventeen and struggling to help his mother financially.[12] Alongside this, Fender announced the tracklist of his then-forthcoming album and described it as "a coming of age story. It's about growing up. It's a celebration of life after hardship, and it's a celebration of surviving".[11]

Critical reception
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic83/100[13]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[14]
Clash8/10[15]
The Daily Telegraph[16]
The Guardian[1]
The Guitar Magazine[17]
The Independent[18]
The Line of Best Fit8/10[19]
NME[20]
Pitchfork6.6/10[21]
PopMatters9/10[22]

On review aggregator Metacritic, the album has a score of 83 out of 100 based on nine critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[23] The Guardian writer Alexis Petridis gave the album five out of five stars and named it his album of the week, calling it "urgent, incisive and brave when it would have been easier for Fender to deck out his festival-ready, TikTok-able melodies with something notably blander and less pointed" and "really powerful".[24] Roisin O'Connor of The Independent felt that Fender had refined both "his songwriting and his sound" from his debut, calling the first six songs "far stronger" lyrically than the rest of the album, and summarised Fender as celebrating surviving the "politicised, polarised and [...] permanent state of anxiety" that the world is in.[25]

Journalist Ewan Gleadow, writing for Spark Sunderland, praised the album, calling it "An intense and passionate showcase of emotions" that provided an "understanding of growing up and out of past behaviours."[26] In Tribune magazine, academic and author Alex Niven wrote, “If there is a better, more painful, more condensed summary of the callousness of British neoliberalism in the times we have all recently lived through, I’m not aware of it."[27]

Year-end lists
Critics' rankings for Seventeen Going Under
Publication Accolade Rank Ref.
Gaffa The 10 best albums of the year
4
[5]
The Guardian The 50 best albums of 2021
11
[28]
The Independent The 40 best albums of 2021
9
[29]
NME The 50 best albums of 2021
1
[30]
PopMatters The 15 Best Indie Rock Albums of 2021
1
[31]
The 75 Best Albums of 2021
3
[32]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Sam Fender.

Standard edition

  1. "Seventeen Going Under" – 4:57
  2. "Getting Started" – 3:09
  3. "Aye" – 3:06
  4. "Get You Down" – 4:23
  5. "Long Way Off" – 3:49
  6. "Spit of You" – 4:33
  7. "Last to Make It Home" – 5:21
  8. "The Leveller" – 4:01
  9. "Mantra" – 4:16
  10. "Paradigms" – 3:45
  11. "The Dying Light" – 3:57

Deluxe edition bonus tracks

  1. "Better of Me" – 3:48
  2. "Pretending That You're Dead" – 2:58
  3. "Angel in Lothian" – 4:11
  4. "Good Company" (live) – 4:46
  5. "Poltergeists" – 2:31

Live deluxe edition bonus tracks

  1. "Howdon Aldi Death Queue" – 1:58
  2. "The Kitchen" (live) – 3:40
  3. "Alright" – 4:24
  4. "Wild Grey Ocean" – 3:54
  5. "Little Bull of Blithe" – 2:10

Charts

Certifications
Region CertificationCertified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[45] Platinum 300,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

See also

References
  1. Petridis, Alexis (7 October 2021). "Sam Fender: Seventeen Going Under review − music that punches the air and the gut". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  2. Hunter-Tilney, Ludovic (8 October 2021). "Sam Fender wields a powerful energy in Seventeen Going Under". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 27 March 2022. Retrieved 27 March 2022.
  3. Marshall, Alex (30 December 2021). "Sam Fender, a Songwriter Caught Between Stardom and His Hometown". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 5 February 2022. Retrieved 27 March 2022.
  4. Fullerton, Kevin (11 October 2021). "Want tickets for Sam Fender's 2022 UK arena tour? Here's everything you need to know". The List. UK. Archived from the original on 11 October 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  5. Schjeldahl, Emilie (30 December 2021). "Anmelderne Har Ordet: Årets 10 bedste album ifølge Emilie Schjeldahl" [Reviewers Have the Word: The 10 best albums of the year according to Emilie Schjeldahl]. Gaffa (in Danish). Archived from the original on 12 April 2022. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
  6. Jenke, Tyler (12 July 2021). "Song You Need to Know: Sam Fender, 'Seventeen Going Under'". Rolling Stone Australia. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  7. Peacock, Tim (8 September 2021). "Listen To Sam Fender's Hypnotic New Single, 'Get You Down'". udiscovermusic. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  8. Grein, Paul (18 December 2021). "Adele, Ed Sheeran & More Dominate 2022 Brit Awards Nominations: Complete List". Billboard. Archived from the original on 18 December 2021. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  9. Green, Alex (2 March 2022). "All the winners from the NME Awards 2022". The Independent. Archived from the original on 3 March 2022. Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  10. Youngs, Ian (18 October 2022). "Mercury Prize: ..." BBC News. Archived from the original on 18 October 2022. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  11. Lavin, Will (7 July 2021). "Sam Fender announces new album 'Seventeen Going Under' with title track". NME. Archived from the original on 7 July 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  12. Savage, Mark (8 October 2021). "Sam Fender says he considered dealing drugs, before music offered a way out". BBC News. Archived from the original on 9 February 2022. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  13. "Seventeen Going Under by Sam Fender Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic. Retrieved 4 November 2021.
  14. Donelson, Marcy. "Seventeen Going Under − Sam Fender". AllMusic. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  15. Harbron, Lucy (6 October 2021). "Sam Fender − Seventeen Going Under". Clash. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  16. McCormick, Neil (7 October 2021). "Sam Fender: Seventeen Going Under, review: seductive, thunderous angst from the North's answer to Springsteen". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  17. Walker, Gary (11 October 2021). "Sam Fender − Seventeen Going Under review: the work of an exceptional young British songwriter". Guitar.com. Archived from the original on 11 December 2021. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  18. O'Connor, Roisin (7 October 2021). "Album reviews: Sam Fender − Seventeen Going Under and BadBadNotGood − Talk Memory". The Independent. Archived from the original on 29 April 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  19. Macadie, Kieran (5 October 2021). "Sam Fender eloquently paints a backdrop of the English north-east on Seventeen Going Under". The Line of Best Fit. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  20. Smith, Thomas (6 October 2021). "Sam Fender − 'Seventeen Going Under' review: a portrait of the artist as a young man". NME. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  21. Shanfeld, Ethan (13 October 2021). "Sam Fender − Seventeen Going Under". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  22. Merrick, Hayden (22 October 2021). "Middle England Woes and Glistening Guitars Collide on Sam Fender's 'Seventeen Going Under'". PopMatters. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  23. "Seventeen Going Under by Sam Fender Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
  24. Petridis, Alexis (7 October 2021). "Sam Fender: Seventeen Going Under review – music that punches the air and the gut". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
  25. O'Connor, Roisin (7 October 2021). "Album reviews: Sam Fender – Seventeen Going Under and BadBadNotGood – Talk Memory". The Independent. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
  26. Gleadow, Ewan (8 October 2021). "Sam Fender – Seventeen Going Under Review". Spark Sunderland.
  27. Niven, Alex (27 November 2021). "How Sam Fender Became the Voice of the North". Tribune. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
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  29. O'Connor, Roisin (18 December 2021). "The 40 best albums of 2021, from Adele's 30 to Billie Eilish's Happier Than Ever". The Independent. Archived from the original on 3 January 2022. Retrieved 11 February 2022.
  30. Williams, Jenessa (10 December 2021). "The 50 best albums of 2021". NME. Archived from the original on 10 December 2021. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
  31. Levine, Jeremy; Mason, Adam (6 December 2021). "The 15 Best Indie Rock Albums of 2021". PopMatters. Archived from the original on 10 December 2021. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
  32. "The 75 Best Albums of 2021". PopMatters. 9 December 2021. Archived from the original on 10 December 2021. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
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  41. "Swisscharts.com – Sam Fender – Seventeen Going Under". Hung Medien. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
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  43. "End of Year Album Chart Top 100 – 2021". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  44. "End of Year Album Chart Top 100 – 2022". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 4 January 2023.
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