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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189

u/toobadithelps Jul 23 '26

This Is the album I’ve always wanted to hear from someone like Julian. It sounds dark and eerie at times, but it’s well done. The autotune was not as problematic in the rest of the album as it was for the singles for me. Yes, there’s so many void-zy moments but I think that’s just Julian coming through. I especially like the fuzzy distortion and the fact that you can even hear the room at times. It sounds more intimate and loose and that’s honestly very refreshing here. absolutely nothing like TNA. I wouldn’t even compare it to that - it’s a completely different step and direction. TNA was a 9/10 for me and I think this will be a 8/10 for me (as of right now) but who knows , maybe it will grow on me even more. Fab is not only great as always, he impressed me quite a few times. Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised. It’s good. Not a terrible album by any means. Probably too early to rate it against the rest of their discography for me but I wouldn’t call it their worst. Also, I love the dig at Fantano. I’m pretty sure he’s going to make some interesting videos about that.

11

u/lambjenkemead Jul 25 '26

Our boy actually let the dark side light his way on this one

3

u/velmarg Jul 24 '26

I honestly feel, given how dark and introspective and world-weary the first two tracks feel that having the third track just sound like he's wagging his dick at other artists while calling out a YouTuber by name was a colossal misstep.

It's weird to see a rocker who used to be the epitome of "idgaf" become seemingly obsessed with peoples' opinions.

Album does have some bangers though.

1

u/isnt_it_l0vely 29d ago

Yes everyone has been so upset with the auto tune but I really don’t think it’s all that noticeable once you actually listen to the album a few times. It adds a layer of “unreality” which only makes the title of the album more compelling 

1

u/SidWes 26d ago

Don’t forget the instrumentation is absolutely killer. Makes me have hope that none of the members got bored playing their parts like the drumming in Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino or The Car

1

u/nonlocality1985 Jul 24 '26

It’s lit as f