Been Stellar – ‘Scream From New York, NY’: smart, fresh songwriting and tender moments

Been Stellar have enjoyed a whirlwind few months. They began 2024 by announcing that they’d signed to Dirty Hit, and embarked on a European tour with labelmates The 1975. Two years ago, the band were playing local venues around New York City and had released their self-titled EP – a release that served as a love letter to the city that had taken them in, as well as a portrait of the dark and grittiness encased in its streets.

With their debut album ‘Scream From New York, NY’, Been Stellar have created their most open and vulnerable work yet. The album sees the group explore new territories such as alluding to tortured love, or the emotional strife of relationships in which words can sometimes fail.

The striking ‘Start Again’ opens the album. Nico Brunstein provides an intense bassline while vocalist Sam Slocum paints a vivid picture of downtown NYC and its inhabitants, such as a man who “drinks himself sick”. He continues: “Yeah the money is good but I’m killing my body / He’s in the shiny clothes so he can’t get hit.” Lead single ‘Passing Judgement’ opens with a gritty guitar riff, a bright tambourine and Slocum’s uniquely piercing vocal – one that finds its power in its sharp depths.

The album’s slower, more romantic tracks – ‘Sweet’, ‘Pumpkin’ and ‘Takedown’ – are soothing yet equally as strong. They serve an important purpose here in that they offer different perspectives from the band’s previous work, honing in on the multitudes of love. “Somewhere on this record, we realised that there’s a reason why love songs exist, and it’s because that’s the most powerful feeling there is,” Guitarist Skyler Knapp previously told NME.

With all of the big names that have come out of NYC – The Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeah, Blondie, Television – it can sometimes feel like everything in the city’s storied guitar rock scene has already been done. But sometimes, you find little pockets of magic in unexpected places. With ‘Scream From New York, NY’, Been Stellar trade in their title as one of the city’s brightest new hopes and emerge as a NYC staple.

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