The Strokes: Reality Awaits

Six years. It took six long years to see The Strokes again. After the highly acclaimed The New Abnormal which earned a Grammy Award and was often hailed as a comeback (and also as the lockdown album!), many imagined the New York quartet would continue on that path. Reality Awaits, however, goes against all expectations. More experimental, this seventh album never aims to reassure. Instead, it asks its listener to acknowledge a simple truth: the Strokes of 2026 are no longer the same as the ones who gave us “Last Nite.” And that is precisely what makes it so compelling.

The Voice as an Instrument

For several years now, Julian Casablancas has been exploring with The Voidz territories far more adventurous than those that built the legend of The Strokes. Many still viewed these experiments as a parallel detour. Reality Awaits proves, on the contrary, that they now feed the group in a more integrated way. For the first time, the two worlds seem to truly merge.

From the opening moments of “Psycho Shit”, Reality Awaits signals its ambition to broaden the band’s musical language. More than guitars or synthesizers, it is Julian Casablancas’ voice that embodies this evolution. The vocoder and autotune become genuine tools of composition. The voice ceases to be merely the vehicle for lyrics and instead merges with the soundscape as an additional instrument. Some will see it as an unnecessary excess. Yet that would miss what makes the record distinctive.

The vocal lines appear to be conceived from the outset to be transformed, as if the voice now dialogues with the synthesizers, Nick Valensi’s and Albert Hammond Jr.’s guitars, Nikolai Fraiture’s bass, or Fabrizio Moretti’s always precise rhythms. This approach perhaps reaches its zenith on “Falling Out Of Love”. The voice integrates with the arrangements to the point of becoming a singular element, deliberately blurring the listener’s reference points. Some will likely regard it as one of the album’s highlights, while others may find it inaudible. And this is probably where Reality Awaits reveals its full richness. The vocoder opens up new melodic possibilities. Harmonies stack differently, dissonances destabilize at first before revealing their coherence as the tracks unfold. “Going To Babble On” is perhaps the best example. Behind these experiments hides a melody of great sensitivity, reminding us that Julian Casablancas hasn’t lost his talent for composition.

A Collective Work

This evolution also stems from the way the album seems to have been crafted. Whereas previous records often gave the impression of being guided primarily by Casablancas’ vision, Reality Awaits lets a true collective writing process come through more clearly. Each member’s instruments weave together without any element trying to dominate the others. Even the voice abandons its role as the central gravity to become another texture within a more horizontally conceived whole. That is why Reality Awaits is probably a record mainly for fans of The Strokes. A newcomer who discovers the group here might find it unnecessarily complex. Conversely, those who have followed Julian Casablancas’ path, his experiments with The Voidz, and the early tremors of The New Abnormal will recognize a coherent evolution. But behind this desire to broaden its musical language, The Strokes never fully abandons their DNA. Tracks like “Lonely In The Future” or “Going Shopping” embody the most accessible songs of the set. A slight caveat arises at the very end of the album with “Tyrants Of The Mellow Moon”. If the piece remains consistent with the ensemble’s ambitions, it struggles more to renew the ideas developed earlier. More repetitive in its construction, it gives the impression of prolonging some experiments without delivering a truly fresh breath.

The album’s title thus takes on its full meaning. The reality awaiting The Strokes might be that of a band that refuses to live forever within its own myth. Reality Awaits isn’t a record seeking to reproduce The Strokes of 2001. It acts more like those painters who, after mastering a faithful depiction of reality, choose to move away from it to explore other forms of expression such as abstraction. It is probably not the album through which new listeners will discover The Strokes. Yet it is likely the one that will persuade even the most loyal followers of the New Yorkers’ career.

The Strokes – Reality Awaits article first appeared on RockUrLife – a rock, metal, alternative, pop, punk, indie webzine.