The Strokes – Reality Awaits

The Strokes' Reality Awaits arrives as the New York band's seventh studio album, their first in six years after 2020's The New Abnormal won the Grammy for Best Rock Album. Rick Rubin returns as producer, and the long gap seems to matter here: source material points to sessions that began in Costa Rica in 2022, then continued to be refined over time, giving these nine songs the feel of a deliberate next step rather than a quick follow-up.

The music keeps faith with the Strokes' core identity while nudging it somewhere slightly stranger. Several sources describe a lean, stripped-back approach, with Rubin's unfussy production framing the band closely, and the lead single “Going Shopping” is a useful guide to the album's character: summery, guitar-driven, a little twangy, and touched with Auto-Tune on Julian Casablancas' voice for a fresh twist on a familiar sound. Across the record, that balance between sharp economy and new details seems to be the point.

That makes Reality Awaits an interesting place in the catalogue: a comeback album, certainly, but not a nostalgic one. Coming after extensive touring in the wake of The New Abnormal, it presents The Strokes as a band still willing to adjust the formula while sounding unmistakably like themselves.

Features

• Black Ice Glitter Vinyl, Indie Exclusive Edition
• Trifold jacket with die-cut inner sleeve

Reviews

• a perfect marriage of mayhem and melody – The Guardian

Reviews

• the endless cycle of heartache on "Liar's Remorse" all serve as reminders of how exciting the Strokes are at their best. - AllMusic.com

Genre: Pop & Rock