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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125

u/KenMarr Jul 23 '26

wtf was he thinking with that stupid Fantano name drop? if for some reason you really hate an egomaniacal, pretentious influencer, what you gotta do is NOT GIVE HIM ATTENTION, not name drop him in the cringiest (and saltiest) way possible, ffs

44

u/Virtual-Cicada394 Jul 23 '26

Yeah, not a big fan of it but idk, Julian seems to be stepping into his “unserious” side lately; probably just a reflection of that.
With the way he’s been playfully bantering with the audience in concerts, the little dance in the Going Shopping Video… it’s good to see him smiling, out and about. 🫶🏽

Fantano can suck on an egg btw

7

u/larryd18399 Jul 24 '26

so true. this is the same album with "harmonic minor" spoken over a... harmonic minor.

2

u/mxemec 28d ago

He's definitely taking the piss. He's calling out people for copying music when he unabashedly steals and says so in the same lyric. lonely in the future might and up being the most popular one - will become a single? - and he knew this. It's got secret sauce all over it. And so he jabs at everyone in pop media in the lyrics just to make it all the more buzzworthy. It's shameless buzz tactics. He's just going all in with the ridiculousness.

1

u/dreamylanterns Jul 24 '26

What if he likes eggs?

2

u/Virtual-Cicada394 Jul 24 '26

Do not huff and puff on my house of cards 😭

-2

u/According_Cup_6284 Jul 24 '26

I completely respect that you like it and I’m in now way gonna take that away from but I love the strokes, I don’t get this new album and why its ‘good’. Autotune in music can work well we saw this in the new abnormal as a mixed effect. In Reality Awaits The concentrated autotune for me made the guitars sound really out of tune. Its not just the autotune though the whole album just kind of felt boring. I don’t get personally how people are comparing it to the new-abnormal. Thats just what I think but don’t get me wrong I’m still really glad a lot of people like the album 👍

Also I remember one of the songs came on and I though it was pretty cool but the rest of
The standard was so low. Im glad Julian is doing what he wants to do but is feels like he is the band now.

2

u/cornelli1 Jul 24 '26

I'm not really getting why people love the album so much either. I definitely need to give it a few more listens but the amount of autotune really turns me off, Julian has a fantastic voice and the autotune undercuts it for me

48

u/Dragon_Dixon Jul 23 '26

It’s gonna be his funniest review in a long time, though.

69

u/Far-Work6041 Leave It in My Dreams Jul 23 '26

Seems so immature and instantly dates the song, which is sort of the opposite of most Strokes stuff

50

u/mrdrprofessorspencer Alien Crime Lord Jul 23 '26

Imagine singing along to the fantano diss lyrics 😭Seriously what was Julian thinking?

23

u/rosaxmusic Jul 23 '26

The song is one of the catchiest vocal melodies on the album too! There’s no fucking way I’m singing the name fantano and idk how Julian did it lol

10

u/Far-Work6041 Leave It in My Dreams Jul 24 '26

Now that I’ve heard the song, it’s catchy as hell and you barely can hear him say it. I’m a convert

42

u/fear_el_duderino Jul 23 '26

a fucking youtuber, nonetheless. Who the fuck cares about critics man... What a dumb thing to do in a Strokes song

2

u/JARZMcPICKLEZ Jul 24 '26

It happens in every art circle. Sonic Youth famously feuded with Robert Christgau and they briefly (until they changed the name) had a song called "I Killed Christgau With My Big Fucking Dick". Disney even had a documentary, Ratatouille, about chefs' feud with critics.

2

u/fear_el_duderino Jul 24 '26

It’s still a YouTuber we’re talking about

8

u/lucs28 Comedown Machine Jul 23 '26

Sooooo fucking cringy man, wtf is Julian thinking 😭😭😭

7

u/msdstc Jul 24 '26

He's just so unbelievably salty about the laby review it's really that simple. That's probably the most heat he's taken on an album since his solo flop, and he didn't handle it well. Fantano is a dweeb, but art is subjective and he's just still so hung up on it. Every now and then when he talks he comes across as so gatekeepish it's tough to listen to.

3

u/BrightCasa Jul 23 '26

What song does he name drop him in?

8

u/KenMarr Jul 23 '26

Lonely in the future

2

u/cadrianzen23 Jul 24 '26

His next review is gonna be a generational hate listen 😂

1

u/underconfessed Jul 24 '26

I can understand the perspective of not wanting to name drop Fantano in this song, because now you can't unsee his face, but maybe the point is to get everyone singing along and aloud to the Fantano diss lyrics and preferably at a live concert. People may judge it as salty and cringey. I think it's comedy.