Scream From New York, NY. Been Stellar

Been Stellar has released its debut album recently. Over the past months several of its singles were found in the near weekly singles section. Listening to Scream From New York, NY, my initial thoughts are confirmed. Been Stellar took the record collection of the members' parents, dropped it on the floor, hustled it around and out come the songs on Scream From New York, NY. I can't help liking it though. The album is charged. If anything shows here, it's that the band obviously wants to play these songs and give them their everything. This is a lock, stock and barrel kind of album.

What makes me like the album more, is the diversity of the songs. Although it can all be put under alternative rock moving towards post punk here and there, the songs sound far from identical.

The start of the album is huge. Been Stellar shows it aims for stadiums. There's nothing half way of modest about 'Start Again'. The sound is huge, impresses immediately and the band is dripping rock. Musically, the song is somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Modern post punk in the way band like 'SPRINTS' play, mixed with Nirvana. Anyone loving this kind of music will find nothing not to like about 'Start Again'. In fact 'Start Again' is the kind of song any band should aspire to when releasing its first album. Wam bam thank you mam straight into your face and beyond.

What worries me, is whether this music isn't too big for the smaller venues the band will have to play in to build its fan base? How loud and huge can you go in the smaller halls of already medium-sized venues? The other option is of course that Been Stellar can skip them due to the support slots it already played for (semi-)arrived bands like Fontaines DC and Shame.

Scream From New York, NY is the kind of album that grips me immediately and doesn't let go. It has all this energy contained into it, while at the same time Been Stellar is capable of using restraint as well. Take the third song 'Pumpkin'. The band manages to make the song bare and then slowly but surely build it out. without killing the alternative ballad it is. It shows musicianship and a keen ear to make 'Pumpkin' special.

This variation is found throughout the album once we've listened to the two first and especially loud rock songs opening it. From that moment everything is possible. Been Stellar is a guitar - bass- drums band and doesn't let this basis go. Over that rock sound sings Sam Slocum with a dreamy voice. He sings in such a relaxed way that at times I get the impression he was singing with another band and the tapes somehow got mixed up. And yet it somehow totally fitted. I have to say that I love listening to his voice.

With 'Sweet' Been Stellar does a 'Helter Skelter' intro, after which the song goes off in a totally different direction. Again the difference between the loud band and Slocum catches my ear. With Skyler Knapp (guitar), Nando Dale (guitar), Laila Wayans (drums), and Nico Brunstein (bass) the band is together for seven years already. Without Covid we may have heard the debut album a few years earlier but as far as I'm concerned, this debut is perfect. Been Stellar may have been lucky as it was able to hone its chops some extra because of the horrid time that hopefully lies behind us today.

With Scream From New York, NY Been Stellar delivers a very mature and well-balanced album that simply rocks. The singles released in the past months predicted a fine album and that promise is delivered on no little. Been Stellar is a name to watch. In November they come over for a show in Paradiso.

Wout de Natris

You can listen to and order Scream From New York, NY here:

https://beenstellar.bandcamp.com/album/scream-from-new-york-ny