Singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten created 'Seventeen' as a meditation on New York's perpetual reinvention and her own evolving relationship with the city since moving there in 2005. The composition captures the arc of urban experience: arriving with youthful optimism, gradually recognising the losses that accompany development, and eventually understanding why longtime residents mourn departed landmarks and businesses. The track examines not just the city's physical changes but how living through them reshapes personal identity and belonging.

Directed by Maureen Towey, the accompanying music video documents specific New York venues that shaped Van Etten's artistic journey, creating a visual catalogue of places that simultaneously inspire and disappear. Rather than surrendering to pure nostalgia, the work embraces impermanence as an inescapable feature of both urban life and personal growth, drawing on traditions of artistic reflection about time's passage in major cities. The composition remains grounded in the artist's genuine affection for New York whilst acknowledging that nothing—places, people, or perspectives—remains fixed.