Fiona-Lee’s debut EP ‘Nothing Compares To Nineteen’ is anything but a cautious introduction. Instead of playing it safe with breezy tunes or vague platitudes, the East Yorkshire singer-songwriter immediately confronts the most painful experiences of her youth. Across six tracks, she lays bare a turbulent coming-of-age story marked by depression, anxiety and even tragedy.
For Fiona-Lee, the EP’s title is painfully literal – ‘Nothing Compares To Nineteen’ refers to the age when she lost a close friend to suicide, a tragedy that put all her other teenage woes into perspective. That unflinching candour defines the record. She writes about shame, grief and mental health struggles with plainspoken honesty, turning private pain into songs that seek understanding. Crucially, there’s catharsis and even a sense of empowerment in her frank confessions.
As personal as these songs are, they also speak to broader issues – Fiona-Lee uses her own life to confront toxic power dynamics and suffocating societal pressures. One track recounts how, as a teenager, she was controlled by a manipulative older man in the music industry, capturing the fear and anger of breaking free from that exploitation. Another questions whether chasing validation – from a boyfriend or from social media – can ever truly cure insecurity. By confronting such uncomfortable truths directly, she shows no interest in sugar-coating any of it.
For all its darkness, ‘Nothing Compares To Nineteen’ isn’t a dreary listen. Fiona-Lee sings with a voice that can shift from a fragile whisper to a full-throated roar, and she has a keen ear for building each song into something anthemic. The arrangements often start quietly and build to cathartic intensity, pairing intimate lyrics with rousing guitars. It’s a dynamic approach, and the result is music that’s both stirring and strangely uplifting, proving that vulnerability can be its own kind of strength.
In this Artist’s Guide, she runs us through the full release, track by track. Listen and dive in.
Nothing Compares To Nineteen
‘Nothing Compares To Nineteen’ is a song about my experience growing up with mental health struggles. I wrote it a few years after losing a friend to suicide, when I was reflecting on how I’d managed to get help when I had been struggling myself. There was a conversation I had with my Dad when I was around 15, where I was telling him how sad I was, and he told me how he’d felt the same when he was young but never opened up to anyone, because men struggle to do that. That was the first time I really recognised the difference between men and women when it comes to reaching out for help. ‘Nothing Compares To Nineteen’ as a statement, is saying, “No experience growing up will ever compare to what happened when I was 19.” It felt like it rounded up the EP well as a title-track.
Mother
‘Mother’ is about a difficult situation I was in a few years ago when I first moved to London. I’d moved down from Yorkshire to pursue music after starting to work with someone who was acting as my manager at the time. I moved into his office basement (eeesh), eventually figuring out he wasn’t a nice guy, and it wasn’t a healthy situation to be in, especially as a 19-year-old girl. I wanted to leave and stop working with him, but I felt totally stuck, like he owned me. I knew how badly he’d react if I left, but thankfully, I managed to leave the day we went into lockdown.
It feels like a very vulnerable song at the start, but as it develops, it becomes angrier and more empowered – which pretty much represents how I felt as the situation developed. It’s essentially about being a young woman who’s being controlled and taken advantage of by a 50-year-old dude in the music industry. This shit happens all the time – especially to young women – so I feel really strongly about discussing the subject matter of this song, which is ultimately men abusing their power.
Through It All
‘Through It All’ is about friendship. I wrote it while reflecting on an argument I’d had with my childhood best mate. We’d never fallen out before and I thought our relationship was over, which was really hard to come to terms with. It was a really painful and uncomfortable process to go back and understand what caused the argument, and it was mainly down to me having a lack of self-awareness and being unpleasant to be around. So it’s about growing pains and making mistakes. I think the song was my way of apologising and saying ‘I’ll still love you even if we’re done”.
When I Wake Up I’m Sad
‘When I Wake Up I’m Sad’ was written through a stream of consciousness when I was processing loads of stuff, so it’s not just about one thing, really. Generally the song is about loneliness and acknowledging a lot of unhealthy habits and thinking patterns I have. A big theme in the song is being single, and questioning whether being in a relationship is something that would change how I feel. Would I be happier? Would I like my body more? Would I be less anxious? I think it’s pretty normal to question these things and try avoid feelings of loneliness by being with someone, even if that person isn’t right for us. Maybe this is even more common as a woman, because society teaches us from a young age that it’s important to find a partner.
Lavender
‘Lavender’ is about my relationship with my mum. I wrote it when I was living at my parents’ house in Yorkshire, desperate to move back to London and be independent again. Whilst I was home I was having a really hard time with healthy anxiety. It was totally consuming, and I’d convinced myself I was going to die – which is obviously really scary – so I just wanted to be held and feel protected like a baby. My mum works in a school so I’d spend most days in my bedroom just looking forward to her coming home so we could sit in the kitchen with a brew. I don’t think she realised how helpful that was for me, to have that time together. So ‘Lavender’ has the juxtaposition of being desperate for independence but then also just wanting to avoid being an adult and have someone take care of you. In my experience so far, that pretty much sums up being a young adult, haha.
To Make Me Feel Good
I love this song. It felt right to put it at the end of the EP because of how euphoric and uplifting it feels (to me, at least.) I love to end things on a positive note.
I wrote ‘To Make Me Feel Good’ when I was struggling a lot with body image and comparing myself to other girls. It’s about the idea that we shouldn’t need so much external validation to feel like we’re good enough as we are. (I think this is really hard for young people now because of social media – another place to get validation that doesn’t actually work in the long run and is just addictive.)
Obviously, this is a universal struggle and I think it’s totally normal to rely on others to feel accepted – but I think there are levels to that kind of dependence – and for me, personally, I’d love to get to a place where I can be happy with who I am, inside and out, no matter what other people think of me and whether I’m in a relationship or not.
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