The Strokes have a new album coming and honestly we needed a moment to just sit with that information. Reality Awaits— their seventh studio album — is out June 26 via Cult Records/RCA Records, and the first single ‘Going Shopping’ is out right now. Go listen to it. We’ll wait.
The record was made in Costa Rica with Rick Rubin, which is either the most surprising or the most perfectly logical producer pairing depending on how you think about it, and finished at various points around the globe. It’s their first new music since 2020’s The New Abnormal, which was met with the kind of warm, relieved critical reception that comes when a band you love reminds you exactly why you loved them in the first place.
Six years is a long time, but The Strokes have never been a band in a hurry, and the evidence suggests that approach continues to serve them well. Since their debut in 2001 — Is This It, just in case you needed reminding of what we’re dealing with here — they have defined the sound of a generation in a way that very few bands genuinely can claim. Reality Awaits has a lot to live up to. ‘Going Shopping’ suggests it’s more than up to the task.
If you want to hear them live before June, they’re playing Coachella this weekend and next, headlining Bonnaroo and Outside Lands, and hitting Japan’s Summer Sonic 2026 among other festival dates this spring and summer.
Reality Awaits is out June 26. ‘Going Shopping’ is out now.
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