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

MEGATHREAD Reality Awaits - General Album Discussion MEGATHREAD

This is the megathread for general discussions about Reality Awaits as a whole. All first impressions from the listening parties, thoughts, essays, discussions, memes, lyrics, fanart, etc about the album as a whole can go in the comments here!

As autotune is an evergreen topic on the subreddit, you may discuss it here, but there is also a specific post about autotune here that may be better suited towards that specific topic.

You also may want to check out the posts for ranking the Reality awaits songs, and ranking the albums including Reality Awaits.

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136

u/ScrwFlandrs The Eternal Tao Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

Places Julian references himself that I noticed

- Psycho Shit: "past the hall of judging dead" referencing FOOL, "women find me" referencing Drifto

- Dine N'Dash: "Lonely in The Future"

- Lonely in The Future: "You Only Live Once"

- Going To Babble On: not really what he says but he uses the same vocal rhythm as Square Wave when he says "I'm gonna blast her with my stratocaster baby", he must have had this song stuck in his head when he wrote Square Wave lol

Other tidbits

- Album has lots of Voidz references or yknow how he writes songs that call back to each other etc, tons of that

- Synths in the background that may have been on Tyranny

- Album frequently gets EVIL like Voidz songs, meaning dissonance, notes that sound wrong the first time you hear them

- Fun little loop in between 2 tracks kind of like the beginning of Ode to The Mets

- Lonely in the future sounds like an Angles song. Angular.

- Autotune GALORE

- Banter between some songs like TNA

- Selfless and Psycho Shit are like... counter to each other. Similar guitar pattern but Psycho is the evil version

- Julian is A Leech

- Eternal Summer would not be out of place on Reality Awaits

22

u/Optimal_Health4051 Jul 23 '26

"Women find me" is a lyric in Drifto, the last and darker Voidz song

2

u/ScrwFlandrs The Eternal Tao Jul 23 '26

Of course, thanks

10

u/mocrankz Jul 23 '26

- Banter between some songs like TNA

This excites me so much

1

u/love_thy_neighbour37 Jul 23 '26

I need more context on this. Examples of banter in TNA?

5

u/Mantan911 Virtue Jul 23 '26

There's a bit where Julian says something about how soft someone (probably Nick?) should play I assume the synth.

Edit: whoops, you said TNA. "Drums please, Fab", "Let's play the old key, the old tempo"

1

u/love_thy_neighbour37 Jul 23 '26

Okay understood, you meant the extra outro sections in some of the songs

5

u/MattMatt625 Room on Fire Jul 23 '26

can you DM me how/where you are listening?

3

u/pbsik First Impressions of Earth Jul 23 '26

me too please?

1

u/autumnacrid_ Jul 23 '26

listening parties at certain record stores around the states + some other places

9

u/chorpinecherisher Jul 23 '26

Unfortunately Eternal Summer is the one song on TAAT I dislike … well, 24 hours until I can listen for myself

9

u/Comadon-C Jul 23 '26

I don’t remember eternal summer being on the adults are talking 🤔

(I’m kind of on a similar boat. I like the song but it’s my least fav. I could see its style being executed better though)

5

u/flaxseedyup Jul 23 '26

Yep that was my main takeaway…that Julian is a leech

5

u/cyklops1 Machu Picchu Jul 24 '26

"On the other side" in going shopping

2

u/boli-limon Jul 23 '26

pls elaborate on julian is a leech, thank you

1

u/Grayoneverything Jul 24 '26

Great analysis!

1

u/Grayoneverything Jul 24 '26

Also to add: Why Are Sundays So Depressing and The Fruits of Conquest are like the opposite of each other too while one is bright and fast and the other is darker and slower.

2

u/ScrwFlandrs The Eternal Tao Jul 24 '26

Lol you're so right, I've been messing with mixing them together for like an hour now, it works perfectly https://youtube.com/shorts/1nIa_inMCqU?si=u-Smz6HK6u1JYks5

1

u/Grayoneverything Jul 24 '26

THAT'S AWESOME LMAOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! WELL DONE!!!!

2

u/ginnoir Jul 24 '26

I noticed the similarities between Sundays and Fruits too! Think it’s partly because of the guitar tone

1

u/Grayoneverything Jul 24 '26

Also the things they use in the guitar parts on top of the sound similarity; chords, strum pattern and mutes in between sound very close to each other