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The Strokes – Reality Awaits
The Strokes’ seventh album, ‘Reality Awaits’, is presented as an ambitious but curiously unresolved follow-up to their Grammy-winning ‘The New Abnormal’. Produced again with Rick Rubin, it leans into Julian Casablancas’ self-mythologising, humour and social critique, while using prominent autotune to explore tensions between sincerity, technology and artificiality.
The review highlights ‘Going Shopping’ for its critique of consumerism and political numbness, and ‘Lonely In The Future’ for its surreal lyrics and vocal effects. More vulnerable tracks, including ‘Falling Out of Love’ and ‘Liar’s Remorse’, address failed relationships, pain and isolation, though the reviewer suggests the album’s continual autotune can make some emotional moments feel disjointed. The record had been in development for over four years and its release was delayed by a month.
In short
- An ambitious Strokes album with an unresolved feel.
- Autotune drives its themes of technology and authenticity.
- Vulnerable songs are sometimes undermined by the vocal effects.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
The album represents an intellectually coherent artistic exploration of contemporary alienation, with autotune deployed as a deliberate thematic choice that reinforces the social critique rather than undermining it. Tracks like 'Going Shopping' use the production to comment on consumerism and emotional numbness in precisely the way an artist should—making form serve content. The four-year development with Rick Rubin has produced something genuinely ambitious: a work that balances Casablancas' wit and vulnerability with a sophisticated statement about how technology mediates modern experience and identity.
The case against
Whilst the conceptual ambitions are clear, the execution falters when production choices create distance rather than connection. Vulnerability requires immediacy, yet the persistent autotune distances listeners from songs like 'Falling Out of Love' and 'Liar's Remorse' that plainly aim for emotional resonance. The album risks being read as ironic or detached precisely when it appears to be reaching for genuine feeling. After four years in development, one might expect these tensions—between conceptual sophistication and emotional authenticity—to be resolved more decisively, but instead the record feels caught between two incompatible artistic impulses.
Explained simply
The Strokes are an American rock band who have been influential in modern music since the early 2000s. Their 2020 album 'The New Abnormal' won a Grammy Award, confirming their status as one of the most important bands of their generation.
'Reality Awaits' is their seventh studio album, produced by Rick Rubin who also produced their Grammy-winning previous record. The album has taken over four years to develop and explores themes around technology, authenticity, consumerism and human relationships.