Reality Already Arrived: The Strokes Album Review, by Keira Kwiatkowski

Everyone knows or has heard of The Strokes. If you haven’t heard of them though, they are an American indie-rock band that burst onto the scene in the 2000s with their outstanding debut album, Is This It. It’s been 6 years since their award-winning album The New Abnormal dropped and fans were beyond excited for the newest studio release, Reality Awaits.

For their previous album, The New Abnormal, the Strokes teamed up with producer Rick Rubin, who previously produced for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, AC/DC, etc. The Strokes decided to team up with him again for Reality Awaits, despite Rubin’s current controversy surrounding his pro-AI viewpoints. On April 7th, 2026, they released “Going Shopping” as a preview of what was to come. I can only describe “Going Shopping" as a bland, autotune-filled song. After coming off the tail-end of great tracks such as “The Adults Are Talking,” “Bad Decisions,” and “Ode To The Mets,” “Going Shopping" was an immense disappointment. Julian Casablancas excels in his gritty, raw emotional way of singing that’s unique to him. Heavily distorting his voice with the use of autotune made this song unpleasant and honestly unbearable to listen to. Despite numerous replays, I can’t find it in myself to enjoy it. 

Sourced from Wikipedia

After listening to “Going Shopping,” I found my excitement turned into worry as I realised that this album would mostly be entirely filled with autotune. Now, I don’t mind autotune in songs if it is done right. I actually really enjoyed when Casablancas was featured in “Instant Crush” by Daft Punk with an edited voice. 

After the poor reception of “Going Shopping”, the Strokes released “Dine N’Dash” as another teaser on June 25th, 2026. Upon my first listen, this song instantly restored my faith within the album. The autotune was significantly less heavy and it brought me back to their third album, First Impressions of Earth and their fourth album, Angles. The synth reminds me of “Games” and the final part of the song sounds like the conclusion of “Electricityscape”. The heavy drums and synth in Dine N’Dash are also very early Strokes, which was such a relief after the unfamiliar sound of “Going Shopping”. After listening to the two teasers, I hoped that “Going Shopping” was a fluke and the rest of the album would be similar to “Dine N’Dash.”

Imagine my lack of surprise when listening to Reality Awaits the night of its release. This album was overall a mess. Nearly every track has Casablancas’s voice smothered with heavy autotune that infects the otherwise good underlying instrumentals. The album opens with “Psycho Shit,” a melancholy song with instrumentals reminiscent of “Exit Music (For A Film)” by Radiohead. The guitar in this song is outstanding, but the autotune completely ruins the somber vibe. I instead feel like laughing at how absurd it sounds paired with the grungy vibe of the song. I feel similarly about the majority of the rest of the tracks on this album. 

“Liar’s Remorse” and “Falling out of Love” aspire to have a depressing tone to them, but the autotune completely ruins it. The intros to the songs start and lead you astray by thinking, “Wow, this can’t be so bad!” 

Then the autotune kicks in. 

If The Strokes had held back and lessened the autotune slightly for these tracks, they would’ve been considerably better. The crackly, robotic voice takes away from what should’ve been great songs, especially in “Liar’s Remorse.” 

The closing song, “Tyrants of the Mellow Moon,” is forgettable. “Ode to the Mets,” the previous final song in The New Abnormal, set the bar insanely high for this song and it pales in comparison. While not as unbearable as “Going Shopping” or “Falling out of Love,” it belongs much better as a mediocre filler song in the middle of the album. Lyrically, this song makes sense as the closer but audibly, it’s boring and leaves me wanting more.

I did particularly like two tracks on the album though. “The Fruits of Conquest,” track 8, was a great surprise. It has similar upbeat instrumentals to “Eternal Summer,” which combines with the autotune really well. It’s a more mature version of the songs on The New Abnormal, combining the newer autotune with instrumentals reminiscent of their older albums. It’s incredibly catchy and I found myself humming it after a few listens. 

“Going to Babble On” has much of the same vibe. It’s a more upbeat version of their song, “Someday," with a more refined sound. The autotune is similarly tuned down, blending the vocals with the background in a seamless way. These two songs give me hope that after experimenting with autotune and vocal editing in their songs, The Strokes will find a middle ground where their music turns out like these two tracks. 

Overall, this album was underwhelming and unlikable. It’s more of an experimental album where The Strokes figure out where they want their future sound to go. I’m not opposed to them using autotune if they figure out how to make it fit with their music instead of ruining the instrumentals entirely. I can only hope that the poor reception on this album will discourage them from going down the heavy vocal editing path in their future albums.