Sam Fender will release his new album, Seventeen Going Under on October 8 (Interscope) and has revealed the second taste of it via “Aye.”  The track is a thumping, angry and frustrated sigh at the state of the UK, where Sam is based.  Yet the themes are universal –  “Aye” observes the battleground of left versus right but widens the lens to discover those party lines have become ever more blurred resulting in online aggravation that lacks nuance. The focus then settles on the disparity between the 1% and everybody else, and while ‘everybody else’ hurls insults at each other arguing semantics on social media, the 1% watch the money rolling in. It’s one of the only politically driven songs on Seventeen Going Under, and typically well observed. A purposeful rant about purposeless ranting. 

Sam explains: “‘Aye’ is about the polarity between the left and the right wing, and how that leaves working class people displaced with a lack of political identity, playing into the hands of the 1%. It’s also a rant about my disdain for the greedy tax dodging billionaires of the world.” 

While Seventeen Going Under is a more intensely personal record than Hypersonic Missiles, it’s lost none of Sam’s acute sense of observation. The album finds Sam turning the mirror on himself; his adolescence and the trials and tribulations of growing up. It’s a relatable journey that careers through an often misspent youth, navigating tumultuous relationships with both friends and family, and trying to figure out what comes next and how to get there. His hometown of North Shields is the ever-present backdrop for the vignettes of a young life travelling breathlessly from nought to sixty, hauling on the breaks and zipping back again from where he started. Over the course of the record, these stunning songs chronicle all the cherished memories, tricky encounters, and events that Sam cannot unsee. 

Seventeen Going Under can be pre-ordered HERE