Boasting acts like The Velvet Underground, Blondie, Interpol and Sonic Youth, the city is one of the richest cauldrons of musical creation on the planet. Been Stellar are the latest band to emerge from the star-studded New York scene and, just as their forerunners did before them, they’ve shaken up the pot.
Scream from New York attempts to capture the harsh nature of their hometown, a place in which tenderness is rare and brutality is abundant. The record finds its path along nihilistic observations of the world that surrounds the band, swaying from raucous and blunt noise to cathartic expressions of desperation.
Evoking the sound of New York luminaries Sonic Youth and Interpol, the band have drifted away, though not entirely, from their early shoegaze sound. The driven chaos on tracks like “Can’t Look Away” and “I Have The Answer” still draw on shoegaze influences, but the album’s sonic home is a disaffected neo-grunge sound that flirts with elements from 90s dream pop, garage rock, and recent post-punk.
Tracks like “All In One” (a track that depicts lead singer
Sam Slocum gaining an understanding of life through mundane activity)
and “Shimmer”, which evokes Hero’s Death era Fontaines D.C, create a
sparse environment of disenchantment. Slocum’s groaning tones weave
catharsis into the mix as the record progresses, nowhere more so than on
the beautifully raw “Sweet”, which exhibits the elements of the record
bouncing off each other in triumphant bliss.
Likewise, the title track echoes the album’s themes of
yearning for meaning, seeing Slocum battling with disillusionment (“It’s
the end of the world and I feel fine”) not shying away from the desire
for a genuine connection in a world offering little. “Passing Judgement”
expresses much the same yearning, but does so through enthralling
instrumentation that explodes in violent relief.
With Scream from New York, Been Stellar have announced their presence with a gem that’s sure to fire them into wider consciousness.
