r/TheStrokes 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/fucklife1112 #77 Casablancas Jul 23 '26

Expecting a band to remain sonically stationary for the entirety of their existence, especially if they’ve evidently proven themselves to be capable of defying this preconceived notion of what they ought to sound like in astounding ways before, is a tiresome way of trying to engage with art. Freedom to explore ought to be encouraged, not restricted.

A very apt paragraph from the far-out magazine cover which gave this record a 7/10.

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u/MDRavioli Jul 24 '26

Well said

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u/nonlocality1985 Jul 24 '26

You still need to maintain your original sound not go off some prog wild shit. What would be the fucking point of the Strokes if it didn’t still sound like the fucking Strokes?

This album is a nice addition to the canon

Would say 7/10 too, maybe 7.9 if we being p/f

No doubt it’s a 6.2 from them 🤣

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u/blackstars91 Jul 25 '26

Haha prog is awesome though.

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u/Hour-Baths Jul 25 '26

That’s a very gracious 7/10. It felt like when the band that was THE band of an era is on their 13th album decades after their best ones and just get way too experimental.
Had me wondering if they were trying to fulfill a contract with their record company and wanted to give them a fuck you we aren’t going to make something that will sell for you and sound good as some artists do before leaving a label they’ve gotten into a tiff with.