Been Stellar don’t do throwaway singles. It’s just a fact. Their latest, ‘Breakaway’, is another reminder that the New York five-piece write with guts, clarity, and the kind of mood you feel in your chest.
Released today, ‘Breakaway’ is their first offering of 2025, and it sounds like the emotional hangover of their massive 2024. the year they dropped their debut album Scream from New York, NY and hit the road with The 1975. Now, they’re easing into the next chapter with a track that folds sadness, anger, regret, and optimism into one woozy, slow-burning package.
Frontman Sam Slocum delivers a performance that walks the tightrope between restraint and emotional spill, barely raising his voice as he mutters: “And if you still know my name / It was only yesterday / Oh just give me yesterday…” It’s romantic and raw in the way this band does best—wistful but never aimless, bruised but never broken.
Built around Sky Knapp’s shimmering guitars, the track rides a groove that feels like you’re watching the city blur past from the back seat of a cab at 2am—stuck between what was and what could’ve been. The band recorded the whole thing live in-studio with producer Aron Kobayashi Ritch, and you can hear that immediacy in every unpolished breath.
In a statement, the band said they were chasing a “mixture of sadness, anger, regret— and ultimately optimism,” and that range comes through. There’s yearning here, but also motion. ‘Breakaway’ doesn’t sit in grief—it pushes through it.
The single lands ahead of the band’s Primavera Sound debut this week and a string of UK and EU dates, including three shows opening for Fontaines D.C. Expect more haze, more heart, and more reasons to believe Been Stellar are just getting started.
For a band so plugged into the pulse of their city, ‘Breakaway’ sounds like stepping out into the night with nothing but memories and the need to keep moving. A soundtrack for the comedown and maybe the recovery too perhaps.
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