number seven uptown review

review taken from baydomain

S.A.M. are the new punk folk romantics. The compositions are tense and gripping, only to scatter like broken glass and chattels around the room like an explosive fight between lovers and best friends. This duo's wearing the same denim as early 70's Springsteen, early 60's Dylan, or any grimy prewar / depression era factory worker sitting and contemplating his ennui with welling tears in a gas lit room. A singing Hubert Selby, a strumming Joseph Heller, and a skin pounding Don DeLillo. These are the songs Winston Smith would have hummed between tortures and betrayal in 1984. But before I have totally painted this in sepia tone and coal stained B & W, there is a silver lining and a rainbow being released by the virtue of these pieces...no pain, no gain...indulge your memories...and have good dreams. I can't say enough good things, or adequate things, that will convince you that you NEED this album. I know I did. If you ever thought Billy Bragg's 'Between The Wars' or Elvis Costello's punk-era output was even mildly enjoyable...then Number Seven Uptown is this notion to the thousandth power.

--Stephen Dohnberg

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