When you’re 18, you’re basically an adult – in the UK at least. When you’re 16, you’re still at school, you’re treated like a child because you are one. But there is also a specific energy to being 17. Much has already been written about pop culture’s never-ending infatuation with youth, and there are plenty of songs, films and books which are based around being 16, or 18. Obviously you could say it’s not necessarily the age 17 that pop music is obsessed with, but being a teenager in general. It’s there, too, in Eurythmics actually quite awful 1999 release “ 17 Again,” in which Annie Lennox looks back on being 17, sings about how it feels: “Innocence will teach you, what it feels like to be used / Thought that you'd done everything, you didn't have a clue.” I could carry on listing a bunch of songs like this, but honestly who has time. It’s there “by the record machine” when Joan Jett sings about how she “knew he must have been about 17.” It’s there in Abba’s “ Dancing Queen” who was “young and sweet” and “only 17.” Stevie Nicks’ most famous solo song “ Edge of Seventeen” is all about a young boy, right on the cusp of that difficult, sparkling time. Once you notice pop music’s love affair with this specific age, suddenly you see it everywhere. “Don’t let me go, ‘cos I love, oh I love you so,” Dolores Kenniebrew sings, her voice glimmering and soft like treacle, “What a nice way to turn 17… I’m 17.” How crushes can feel mammoth and unconditional, how little you feel the need to protect yourself because you’ve likely not been hurt yet – at least not properly. Whenever I hear it, though, it reminds me of the blind idealism of that age. This is a blissful, romantic song, in which they sing about spending their birthday in the arms of someone they love. One of my favourite songs under this theme is The Crystals’ “What a Nice Way to Turn 17” which was released in 1962. Van Etten isn’t the first artist to pay homage to this specific age. How sweet it can be, how uncomfortable, how complex it feels to look back on. Later, her voice lowers over the bass and synth: “I see you so uncomfortably alone / I wish I could show you how much you’ve grown.” And in those two contradictory bars, Van Etten articulates exactly what it means to be 17. In “ Seventeen”, the lead single, she sings: “I used to be free / I used to be 17” her words breaking over soaring guitar riffs. But there’s one song that really stands out. It’s brilliant, full of atmospheric songwriting and emotionally affecting melodies. Earlier this month, on Friday 18 January, Brooklyn-based musician Sharon Van Etten released her fifth album, Remind Me Tomorrow.
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