"Seventeen": Sharon Van Etten's Song for a Changing New York
Far Out Magazine published a feature on August 10, 2026 revisiting "Seventeen," a track from Sharon Van Etten's 2019 fifth album Remind Me Tomorrow. The piece situates the song within a long tradition of New York writing, arguing it captures both a shifting city landscape and the songwriter's own displaced sense of identity — drawing a comparison to Joan Didion's essay "Goodbye to All That," from her collection Slouching Towards Bethlehem.
Where the song comes from
Van Etten was born in New Jersey, grew up in Nashville, and moved to New York in 2005. "Seventeen" reflects on the changes she witnessed over her many years living in the city.
In a press statement at the time, she described the song as a kind of chain reaction: arriving in the city full of hope, hearing older residents complain about how much things were changing, and only understanding what they meant once she herself had stuck around long enough. The line "I used to be 17" marks that shift in perspective — as a newcomer, watching a shop close felt inconsequential, but with time she came to see that what closes is often a community, a shared history.
The video: a Maureen Towey-directed tour of New York
The music video for "Seventeen" was directed by Maureen Towey and takes the shape of a route through New York, linking together locations that shaped Van Etten's musical formation.
- Union Pool (a live music venue in Williamsburg)
- Baby's All Right (a live music venue in Brooklyn)
- the Marcy Avenue stop on the JM subway line
Towey has said the video's gaze on the city is both tender and rough, aiming to capture how a beautiful city can be falling apart and still nourishing the hopes of young artists at the same time. Far Out reads the song as mournful without wallowing, its focus resting on the simple fact that things pass.
A lineage of New York songs
The Far Out piece opens by placing "Seventeen" within a broader lineage of songs about New York City: Frank Sinatra's "Theme From New York, New York," Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind," Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' ode to the city, The Strokes' "New York City Cops," Taylor Swift's own welcome-to-New-York anthem, Leonard Cohen's "First We Take Manhattan," and Bobby Womack's "Across 110th Street." The article closes its reading of "Seventeen" by invoking the line about loss and gain from Joni Mitchell's 1969 song "Both Sides Now."