#RealityAwaits is the hashtag for The Strokes’ seventh studio album, released 24 July 2026 on Cult Records / RCA — the New York band’s first LP since 2020’s The New Abnormal and their second consecutive record with producer Rick Rubin. Announced with the twitchy, autotune-heavy single “Going Shopping” and cut in part at Rubin’s Costa Rican compound, the album re-opened a long-simmering fan debate about how far Julian Casablancas and company should drift from the Is This It template.
Quick Facts
- Release date: 24 July 2026 (Cult Records / RCA)
- Producer: Rick Rubin
- Length: 9 tracks
- Lead single: “Going Shopping”
- Companion film: In Transit: Part II, directed by Johann Rashid, debuted 23 July 2026
- Prior LP: The New Abnormal (2020)
The Album
Reality Awaits runs nine tracks — “Psycho Shit,” “Dine N’Dash,” “Lonely in the Future,” “Falling out of Love,” “Going to Babble On,” “Going Shopping,” “Liar’s Remorse,” “The Fruits of Conquest,” and “Tyrants of the Mellow Moon.” Recording began at Rubin’s mountaintop compound in Costa Rica, an unusually residential setup that the producer used to slow the sessions down; the group then reconvened in scattered studios as writing continued. Rashid was invited into the Costa Rica sessions to film what became the short In Transit: Part II, which premiered a day before the album on 23 July 2026 as part of the rollout.
Critical Reception
Reviews landed mixed-to-positive with the argument centered on one specific choice: the album’s aggressive, near-constant use of Auto-Tune on Casablancas’ vocals.
- NME (80/100): “takes them even further away from where they started out … a weird and wonderful collection.”
- The Guardian (80/100): praised how the record “alloys the crackpot strangeness of Julian Casablancas’ side projects with his band’s gift for pop minimalism.”
- Rolling Stone: an “at times enjoyable, often inscrutable, sometimes straight-up bizarre addition to the band’s story.”
- Consequence: framed it as “wildly engaging” and a genuine push past The New Abnormal.
- AllMusic: noted the maximalist swing is similar to The New Abnormal but “the results aren’t as rewarding.”
The near-universal flashpoint was “Going Shopping,” whose heavily processed lead vocal became the go-to reference point for both defenders and detractors of the album’s direction.
Social Media & Spread
On release day, #RealityAwaits ran alongside #TheStrokes and #NewMusicFriday across X and TikTok, joining a crowded 24 July calendar that also brought #MusicFashionFilm from #CharliXCX and #APop from #Tyla. NPR’s All Songs Considered grouped the three releases as the tentpole New Music Friday of the month, which pushed the album into playlists and reaction threads beyond the band’s core indie audience.
Cultural Impact
For a group whose 2001 debut is still the reference point for early-2000s indie rock, Reality Awaits extended a late-career pattern — willingness to sound unlike The Strokes at the risk of alienating the base — that began on 2020’s The New Abnormal. The Rick Rubin partnership and the Costa Rican residency also fed a wider 2026 discourse about “retreat-mode” record-making, alongside similar work Rubin was doing elsewhere.
Variations & Related Tags
Common variants include #StrokesRealityAwaits, #TheStrokes2026, and #StrokesRickRubin. The album sits inside the wider #TheStrokesRevival conversation and reactivated interest in the band’s catalog, especially #IsThisIt.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_Awaits
- https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/strokes-reality-awaits-review-1235597095/
- https://www.npr.org/2026/07/24/nx-s1-5902954/new-music-friday-best-albums-july-24-2026
- https://consequence.net/2026/07/the-strokes-reality-awaits-album-review/
- https://www.nme.com/reviews/album/the-strokes-reality-awaits-review-3958741
- https://stereogum.com/2506138/the-strokes-new-album-reality-awaits-is-here/music
- https://www.allmusic.com/album/reality-awaits-mw0004793790