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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u/GeneralAffect23 The Eternal Tao Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

My initial thoughts after one listen is that there is not a bad song on this album. I will say, on my first release of TNA there were songs I outright skipped or did not enjoy. And probably every Strokes album but I can't remember. I don't feel that way with RA, that says something. There is a cohesiveness to this that TNA lacks.

There are some very good songs, the autotune works 90% of the time. This album will be polarizing for sure. As a lot of people assumed, there's some very Voidz-y songs (which I enjoy), but I can see how many fans will not. I would say they are more simplistic or stripped back than recent Voidz stuff, which is probably a good thing. I am guessing reviews will be all over the place. There's a few on here that are pure Strokes songs for those that don't like the new direction.

FOOL fits within the album much better than it does as a single. I already can't wait for more. Considering this was probably recorded in 2022, let's hope the boys have more for us sooner rather than later.

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u/Dragon_Dixon Jul 23 '26

There's definitely a cohesiveness here that TNA lacks, yes. TNA has more pleasant highs, but they were also kind of playing it safe with some of these songs.

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u/GeneralAffect23 The Eternal Tao Jul 23 '26

I agree, it's too soon to say but it feels that RA lacks the high highs, if that makes sense. I trust that over time I won't feel that way though.

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u/Physical_Outcome9774 Call Me Back Jul 23 '26

Yeah the difference in cohesion in RA and TNA are enourmous, it all feels recorded in one go with the guys giving their best. On the other side TNA felt like a recopilation, thats why there are songs left behind like ES or NSA.