Honeymoon Suite Music

The Strokes have a new album out tomorrow. Six years on from the critically acclaimed The New Abnormal, Reality Awaits will be the seventh studio album from a band who have long cemented themselves as one of the most influential artists of the 21st century. Since the announcement of Reality Awaits back in April, The Strokes (more specifically frontman Julian Casablancas) have found themselves in the media spotlight for a reasons both musical and political.

I would like to preface this article by stating that Reality Awaits will have to be one of the best albums of the 21^st century if it is to top The New Abnormal. Arriving in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic in April of 2020, The New Abnormal is viewed by many as an album that saved The Strokes from fading into rock obscurity. Prior to the release of The New Abnormal, the last studio album released by The Strokes was 2013’s Comedown Machine. Whilst Comedown Machine certainly had its merits, it was apparent to fans (and critics) that The Strokes had lost some of the spark that made their earlier releases so universally acclaimed. It had been circulating in the music industry since the late 2000s that The Strokes were not in a brilliant place as a band – this was further cemented when it was leaked that frontman Julian Casablancas was not present for the recording of their 2011 album Angles, instead opting to provide vocals for the tracks via audio files sent by email. When Comedown Machine was released in 2013, there was no accompanying interviews, press releases or tour announcement – nothing. This is what is referred to as a ‘media blackout’.

In the seven years between Comedown Machine and The New Abnormal, many believed The Strokes had reached the end of the road as a band. Although the band released an EP in June of 2016 titled Future Present Past which was met to critical acclaim, stories persisted that members of the band were not on good terms with one another and that it was likely Future Present Past would be the final release from The Strokes. This was also compounded in the fact that by this point, each member of the band had embarked on musical projects separate from that of The Strokes (most notably frontman Julian Casablancas and his experimental rock band The Voidz, formed in 2013).

When The Strokes announced the release of The New Abnormal, their sixth studio album, in February of 2020, fans reacted to the news with a combination of excitement and scepticism. Despite the band occasionally performing live shows throughout the four years since Future Present Past, it had reached a point where fans were beginning to accept that The Strokes were done releasing any new material. The New Abnormal was released on the 10^th April 2020 and was met with widespread critical acclaim. Fans were in amazement of how good the album was. The New Abnormal did not feel like an album from a band that had undergone years of creative differences, internal feuds and personal conflicts. The album debuted at number eight on both the US Billboard 200 and UK Albums Chart and would later win a Grammy Award for the Best Rock Album at the 63^rd Annual Grammy Awards in March of 2021.

The New Abnormal truly felt like it had defied the odds. What many expected to be another half-hearted mediocre release would actually become the band’s best album since their debut Is This It in 2001. Much of the credit for The New Abnormal’s excellence can be credited to producer Rick Rubin. Recorded mostly at Rubin’s Shangri-La studios in Malibu (California), Rubin’s production style allowed the band to cast aside their creative differences and reignite the spark in the band that had been missing for the better part of ten years. Rubin is also the producer of Reality Awaits, which releases tomorrow.

The last few months have been far from quiet for The Strokes. Two singles from Reality Awaits have been released thus far – ‘Going Shopping’ (released 7^th April) and ‘Falling Out of Love’ (released 13^th May). Both singles have caused a lot of division within The Strokes fandom (and beyond) due to the heavy presence of autotune featured on both tracks. Autotune is something that Julian Casablancas has experimented with a lot with his band The Voidz and is a production style that he is clearly a fan of.  To some, autotune is something that Casablancas should reserve for his more experimental projects such as that of The Voidz and should be kept away from any material that The Strokes release. Personally, I really like the two singles that have been released from Reality Awaits, but I can understand why a lot of people do not. However, what I cannot understand are fans who are genuinely infuriated by the presence of autotune on these tracks. It is completely valid if you do not like these songs because of the autotune (that’s what personal preference is) but to make the argument that these songs should not be released under the name of ‘The Strokes’ because of the presence of autotune just seems a bit ludicrous to me. Surely The Strokes are a band that have earned the rights to release the sort of music that they want? Even so, aren’t musicians allowed to make the music that they want to make anymore?

To cut it short, the use of autotune has fans ‘worried’ for Reality Awaits. Some have called for the singles to be remixed without the use of autotune, whilst some have even speculated that the band are ‘trolling’ listeners with the presence of autotune on Going Shopping and Falling Out of Love and that Reality Awaits will not feature autotune whatsoever. Each to their own but surely if you don’t like a couple of songs, just don’t listen to them – just go about your day and don’t let it anger you to a point where you demand songs be rerecorded. Aside from the autotune controversy (if you can call it that), the band has found themselves in the media spotlight after comments that Casablancas made on the internet talk show ‘SubwayTakes’. SubwayTakes is hosted by comedian and media personality Kareem Rahma and involves Rahma inviting guests to reveal their ‘takes’ (usually controversial opinions) whilst taking a ride on the New York City subway. On the 21^st April, Casablancas appeared on an episode of SubwayTakes and on his most controversial take revealed “American Zionists get the benefits of, you know, white privileged people but talk like they are black people during slavery”. Rahma 100% agreed with Casablancas’ take, with the pair continuing to criticise American Zionists for acting as if they are oppressed in society, whereas the reality is that they are not oppressed at all and have all the freedoms that they could possibly have in society.

Casablancas was quick to be labelled antisemitic across various American news outlets. Casablancas’ comments came under the spotlight even more so when The Strokes announced that guitarist Nick Valensi, a man of Jewish heritage, would not be joining The Strokes on their upcoming 2026 world tour. Many immediately made the connection of the time duration between Casablancas’ comments on SubwayTakes and the band announcing Valensi would not be touring with the band, and rumours started to circulate that Valensi had left the band because of Casablancas’ comments on American Zionists. Reports would later come out that Casablancas and Valensi had not been on speaking terms since as far back as last November, with The Strokes reaffirming that Valensi was only taking a temporary break from touring and had not permanently left the band. As of now, there are no grounds to make a connection between Casablancas’ comments and Valensi taking a step back from touring with the band, so hopefully we see him back with The Strokes in the near future.

Casablancas would later elaborate on his American Zionists take at a speech at the British debating society The Oxford Union on May 28^th, which I am yet to watch in full. It is safe to say that it has been a whirlwind couple of months for The Strokes. Regardless of all the musical and political controversy, Reality Awaits releases tomorrow, and I am very much looking forward to it.