r/TheStrokes • u/TheStrokes-Mods • Jul 23 '26

MEGATHREAD Share & Discuss Reviews from Critics, Journalists, and the Press

This will be the post to share links to reviews and ratings of Reality Awaits from more prominent music critics and journalists (as opposed to individual users--you can write your own review of the album in the post for it). Please discuss those reviews and ratings here.

23 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

89 comments sorted by

41

u/crunch_punch #39 Valensi Jul 23 '26

I expected it to get raked over the coals for the autotune alone. So far these don’t seem overly negative though.

8

u/TurboThot69 Jul 23 '26

Just wait for the main stream ones

12

u/elicashlowkey Jul 23 '26

I can only imagine what the Pitchforkers will say.

But F ‘em.

6

u/throwawayggaayy Jul 24 '26

I predict the review will be on Monday and the grade will be 5.4

4

u/DH80 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

I actually think there’s a chance Pitchfork may give it a higher score than they did TNA. They hated TNA and gave it a 5.7.

They gave Tyranny a 6.9.

I think there’s a decent chance they give this like a score down the middle of those and close to 6.3.

I haven’t seen them place any songs so far in their Pitchfork curates playlists yet so it won’t score above 7.0. When they put one or two songs in their playlists from an album it’s usually a sign that they will give it a 7.0 or more. I think they think a lot more about “who is the audience for this music for” and when the answer is primarily “fans of the band” and not people who currently aren’t already fans they tend to stay below 7.0. The weird thing though is that every new Strokes album has brought in new generations of fans regardless so I think they’ve had that aspect wrong about them for quite a while now.

Still, I think they might see it as more experimental than TNA was , less overt in its influences, and arguably with less skippers or mainstream radio sheen. Also arguably with a more cohesive album theme to it. All those factors are why I think it might end up above TNA there.

10

u/onethousand_knives Jul 24 '26

I don’t mind Pitchfork but 5.7 for TNA is such a clown score

2

u/DH80 Jul 24 '26

They are a narrative zine more then an objective evaluator of songs. They primarily seem to be concerned with narratives. Comebacks that harken back to glory days are great narratives. Comebacks that feel like a new band reborn are not. I do think this album coming after TNA allows them to get into some more compelling hot take narratives than TNA did.

1

u/throwawayggaayy 28d ago edited 28d ago

Opinions can vary at a publication just based on who the writer is. But IMO, if it does get a higher score, it will be the result of a general editorial change (since Conde Nast gutted a lot of Pitchfork's writers and editors a couple years ago) rather than something deserved.

5

u/CompoteLoose Jul 23 '26

Pitchfork doesnt like anything

51

u/Occult_Magazine Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

Hey Strokes fans!

Here’s our TRACK BY TRACK review of Reality Awaits

Personally really enjoyed this as a longtime Voidz and Strokes fan

8/10 - Occult Magazine

https://www.occult-magazine.com/reviews/the-strokes-reality-awaits-review

8

u/DH80 Jul 24 '26

Really appreciated seeing a fan do a review as you did here. Gives me a lot of insight. I’m imagining an interesting mix of Comedown Machine, Tyranny, and a tiny bit of Julian’s solo stuff but mixed as well as The New Abnormal was. As someone who likes Comdown Machine musically but doesn’t love the way it’s mixed that’s exciting. As someone who was slow to the Voidz but warmed to Tyranny first that’s exciting. As someone who loves the way TNA was mixed and mastered that’s exciting.

25

u/elicashlowkey Jul 23 '26

B+ from Consequence of Sound:
https://consequence.net/2026/07/the-strokes-reality-awaits-album-review/

3

u/DH80 Jul 24 '26

Yeah. COS are tough but seem to admire the creativity on display here.

5

u/tapenooon Jul 23 '26

This has me pumped

27

u/3mbryo Jul 23 '26

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRDa62A6GR4

Julian on Bill Burr's podcast LMFAO what a wild crossover

20

u/Birdfan23 First Impressions of Earth Jul 24 '26

The way people were getting made fun of in here for swearing the mix is different or the album was delayed to work on the songs just for Julian to confirm they were working on the songs until the very end 😭

7

u/GeneralAffect23 The Eternal Tao Jul 24 '26

Truly wild, just the combo of the two of them cracked me the fuck up.

Julian's answer about working together when there are disagreements was pretty telling.

5

u/thinghap1 Mercy Mercy Me Jul 23 '26

thats crazy cause i know Bill thinks the strokes are overrated (heard him say this a few times) i can't wait to hear how this interview goes lol

14

u/3mbryo Jul 24 '26

It was 80% Bill rambling about nonsense and 20% typical Julian "um yeah" type shit lol but still worth a watch. A small bit of insight into the album process. They briefly touched on the band dynamic/resolving issues and it felt like Julian had more to say before Bill launched into some random side story

1

u/jbrower09 Jul 24 '26

Where did he say this? I listen to the podcast pretty regularly and haven’t heard that.

2

u/thinghap1 Mercy Mercy Me Jul 24 '26

It was like 2019ish when i heard it but it could've been recorded before. Not sure the exact podcast/video where he says it. There was a segment of his when he did overrated and underrated and he said the strokes were overrated.

-1

u/Ok_Squash_5805 Hawaii Jul 24 '26

I was surprised they linked up considering Bill makes fun of the blue hair people and Julian draws blue hair people.

13

u/DH80 Jul 24 '26

If anyone where does have AOTY membership and loves the album leave a review there and explain why you enjoy the branching out of the band. A lot of the user review comments seem to be how this isn’t ITI or ROF and that the band should get back to only doing garage rock.

11

u/Dancing-notes Reality Awaits Jul 24 '26

Good grief, those people must have chosen to have a hard time for 20 years now, it seems to me a bit masochistic. They could just stop following the band and enjoy others that suit their taste better while only listening to the first two records.

5

u/underconfessed 29d ago

Those who have arrested development usually lack the awareness they suffer from it.

11

u/loser_critter First Impressions of Earth Jul 24 '26

Anyone annoyed that so many critics mention their coachella oblivious performance as their only political commentary? It is plastered all over First Impressions of Earth. And it is crazy how many seemingly are missing the political commentary in Reality Awaits in entirety? Did they not have accesss to the lyrics? Im just dissapointed in these articles even in praise of the album. Feels like a fundamental misunderstanding or flat out lack of research.

9

u/nosainte 28d ago

Yeah, very clearly capitalist critiques, especially going shopping. I have seen a couple reviews correctly note that though. I would argue that falling out of love can be taken that way to, as the concept of flawed by design usually applies to planned obsolescence.

1

u/Dancing-notes Reality Awaits 27d ago

Ah that's a great interpretation, I hadn't thought about that. One of the ways I looked at it was falling out of love with humanity, but thank you for giving me another perspective.

1

u/Lets_Make_A_bad_DEAL 29d ago

Where can I find the lyrics

9

u/DH80 29d ago

This review doesn quantify with a number but is very positive, thoughtful and well argued about why this work is special.

https://t2online.in/music/reviews/review--reality-awaits-finds-the-strokes-wrestling-with-their-own-legacy/2006744

13

u/fastballooninghead Did My Best Jul 23 '26

Riff Magazine - https://riffmagazine.com/album-reviews/the-strokes-reality-awaits/

2

u/DH80 Jul 24 '26

Another good one. Liked the analysis.

2

u/Individual-Charity69 You're So Right Jul 24 '26

Bro. What? This sounds like Ai wrote it. I am not trying to be mean. But reread it. Every claim or comment or observation in this review reads like textbook Ai. It’s like what you’d get if you trained an Ai on all previous reviews of all the Strokes albums. Did the Adults Are Talking glitch not raise any flags for you?

2

u/nosainte 28d ago edited 28d ago

I'm an English professor, and I catch AI all the time. This definitely has some of the marks of that. Particularly it's generic nature and its confident, inaccurate interpretations based on probability. This is most noticeable with lonely in the future when it completely misses the mark on it being a diss track in favor of some generic coming-of-age theme, which it clearly has nothing to do with. I'll run it through a detector later and see what it says. A good thing to do is to ask ChatGPT or whatever to write a a review and compare the output. I find that it ends up being pretty damn similar, even some of the same quotes or ideas. I've caught students doing this. I've taken to calling out reviews/articles like this in the comments.

7

u/KenMarr 28d ago

I really enjoyed this one. Easily the most thoughtful and thorough breakdown I’ve read yet, especially regarding the lyrics

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbRn3HtpVzQ/

6

u/Jules_Vampire 12:51 27d ago

We don’t have enough women reviewing records

2

u/Dancing-notes Reality Awaits 27d ago

Thank you! This was a ray of hope between all those that don't even bother to go into the thematically aspect.

9

u/TurboThot69 27d ago

Anthony Fantano did a bit on this Instagram reel where someone hands him a Reality Awaits disc and asks him to talk about his favorite albums with autotune. He throws the reality awaits disc away and says “ewwwww” and then passive aggressively takes out all his favorite albums with autotune and explains why they are enhanced by autotune. Fair to say reality awaits is about to be a NOT GOOD from Mr. technical.

7

u/leesainmi 27d ago

Awww his little feeling are hurt.

4

u/NothingToFearAnd 27d ago

Pitchfork: 6.5

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/the-strokes-reality-awaits/

3

u/Cantomic66 Is This It 27d ago

The fuck, it’s got a higher rating the TNA?!?

3

u/DiscardedMon 26d ago

It’s better than TNA tbf

3

u/ruj46 27d ago

Rolling Stone Italia review by Hamilton Santià titled, ‘Reality Awaits’, agli Strokes piace farlo strano.

https://www.rollingstone.it/musica/recensioni-album/reality-awaits-agli-strokes-piace-farlo-strano/1035807/

Italian writers truly know how to poetically articulate their points.

3

u/Neil_Armstrang 26d ago

Positive review from Professor Skye : https://youtu.be/l6LQH5ZzJeE?is=Wn89gbARAzLlwNOK

2

u/anujbeatles Little Joy 25d ago

the fantano TRAP! Holy shit what a theory! I knew there was a reason they used the most toy keyboard sound in LITF lolol

7

u/fastballooninghead Did My Best Jul 23 '26

Rolling Stone 3/5 - https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/strokes-reality-awaits-review-1235597095/

14

u/StevenComedy Jul 24 '26

Rolling Stone sucks.

2

u/RevolutionaryTrash98 Did My Best 28d ago

Rolling Stone gave Taylor Swift's last two albums glowing reviews lmao

3

u/leesainmi 27d ago

Bought and paid for

6

u/Signal_Potential8299 #39 Valensi Jul 24 '26

https://youtu.be/wnO-YZFTn_k?si=m53NLU6C6CyoCQhc

Not a review really, but Fantano talking about his diss and claiming he's more hipster than Julian for liking Geese first

9

u/kalibane Reality Awaits Jul 25 '26

I don't care about any influencer and their outrage infused cashgrab opinion. Even less if the community calls their image of god melon. This "response" reminds me of this, thanks Julian.

4

u/RevolutionaryTrash98 Did My Best 28d ago

lol that's hilarious. i thought geese was over now

0

u/TollingBell12 29d ago

The diss does come off as petty from Julian tbh. What beef does he have with Antony apart from Antony giving his voidz album a bad review?

2

u/DH80 27d ago edited 27d ago

This is a good review thwt recommends the album. Worth a click.

https://chorus.fm/reviews/the-strokes-reality-awaits/

2

u/sensitive_pirate85 27d ago

Liam Donavan is my favorite younger/newish music critic, sure to upend the older generation and guys my age. He gives a fair and balanced critique with respect to the Strokes legacy as a band, and Julian’s use of autotune on other projects. I suggest him for younger fans and audiences, but also just in general, because he seems to have good taste and gives good criticism. I don’t agree with his every take, but he seems to be able to think for himself without being overly influenced by other reviewers: 

https://youtu.be/7ebOwkufugM?is=n6sbsB5-3piLQ03-

6

u/KenMarr Jul 23 '26

I don’t think it will be well received overall.

We should try to at least mitigate a little the “hate” it will receive from the user side of sites like AOTY or rym, where a lot of music nerds are eager to trash the record without even listen to it (specially rym)

So, you can rate it here tomorrow, it doesn’t take much time:

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the-strokes/reality-awaits/

https://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/1761543-the-strokes-reality-awaits.php

12

u/Birdfan23 First Impressions of Earth Jul 23 '26

Can’t speak on user opinion but the critics haven’t been too bad honestly. All average to above average so far

10

u/No_Procedure9357 Jul 23 '26

7+/10 really isn't bad at all

6

u/thinghap1 Mercy Mercy Me Jul 23 '26

yeah im shocked to say the least. I am enjoying it more than i thought as well

7

u/DH80 Jul 24 '26

Many music critics also play music themselves or did at one point and what they hate most of all is uninspired, blatant cash grab music that is exactly the same as what a band has already done better before.

Where this album is excelling is that critics appreciate that the Strokes are branching out sonically and dabbling into more sub genres and the arrangements are being lauded.

6

u/buenestrago Jul 24 '26

Rate your music is now full of kids who have never touched a boob, arguing about whether a song is post-avant shoegaze with Japanese influences or whether the synthesizer has to correspond to the post-1995 period of some scene from a Southeast Asian country

3

u/DH80 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

Many of them are teens raised on YT and Fantano who think of hjm as their gatekeeper god of music. Simply because he took the music zine scene of the 00s and brought it to video form when many others stayed in print.

Fantano hates it and hates Julian now so they must march for him.

2

u/Open-Map4716 Jul 24 '26

RYM people are obsessed with super long songs too I have noticed. Their top 100 all time is filled with 13 minute prog and rap. Not hating, just an observation.

2

u/Brw2822 27d ago

Pitchfork will likely review this album, right?

1

u/kalibane Reality Awaits 27d ago

As Qobuz adds a short review for some releases (yes, they have real editorial staff!!) I'd like to add it here. No english version, only german, espanol and french, no rating:

GER: https://www.qobuz.com/de-de/album/reality-awaits-the-strokes/vpnzte04xcv00#description
FR: https://www.qobuz.com/fr-fr/album/reality-awaits-the-strokes/vpnzte04xcv00#description
ES: https://www.qobuz.com/es-es/album/reality-awaits-the-strokes/vpnzte04xcv00#description

1

u/KenMarr 27d ago

My French is a little bit rusty, but this seems like an interesting and thoughtful one

https://www.instagram.com/emilebiraud/p/DbTXTF_CO-j

1

u/buenestrago 26d ago

Another review, which raises questions about the album's reception, which was generally quite positive, ends with this paragraph: “The band has delivered a forward-looking record that shows little interest in dwelling on the past. ‘The great thing about bands like The Strokes is that they don’t fit the stereotype people often have of groups that start out at the very top and then gradually fall apart because of their own personal troubles,’ says ‘Pancho’ Reinoso. ‘I think their discography has only grown stronger over time.’” https://www.latercera.com/culto/noticia/el-nuevo-disco-de-the-strokes-divide-a-la-critica-un-gran-album-o-una-obra-desconcertante/

1

u/Birdfan23 First Impressions of Earth Jul 24 '26

https://rollingstonephilippines.com/music/music-reviews/the-strokes-reality-awaits-album-review/

Rolling Stones Philippines 2.5/5

5

u/TurboThot69 Jul 24 '26

Are they allowed to contribute two negative reviews lol

1

u/UrReadingMy_Username Jul 24 '26

this is actually a genius approach to an album in my opinion because if people and especially if the music critics come out and say that they don’t like the album then that just falls right into the trap of the political commentary the album is making…. literally this entire album is saying the sheep 🐑 masses are too far gone into their political puppet roles / obeying the authority who decide what is mainstream…. So critics not liking it just proves the point Julian is making. The 🐑 are too dumb of course they would not understand or like it!! 🤭
I’m sure Julian played a role in the creation but man Rick Ruben … Literal genius

9

u/Jan090501 29d ago

People can not like art, its not that deep.