Albums to watch

Reality Awaits

The Strokes

Reality Awaits

Seventh album and first in six years from the New York indie rock band produced by Rick Rubin (Johnny Cash, Eminem, Kanye West)

ADM rating[?]

6.5

Label
Columbia
UK Release date
24/07/2026
US Release date
24/07/2026
  1. 8.3 |   Consequence Of Sound

    It’s The New Abnormal with fewer guardrails, with a dash more Voidz, with whatever nutso energy comes from recording with Rick Rubin in Costa Rica
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  2. 8.0 |   NME

    The New Yorkers’ first album in six years takes them even further away from where they started out. That, as this weird and wonderful collection proves, is no bad thing at all
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  3. 8.0 |   The Guardian

    Allying the crackpot strangeness of Julian Casablancas’ side projects with his band’s gift for pop minimalism, the New Yorkers are on playful, joyous form
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  4. 7.8 |   Northern Transmissions

    With the touch of Rick Rubin, The New Abnormal became a creative lifeline for The Strokes. On Reality Awaits, the partnership continues, less about finding the heart of the band and more about growing boldly with its evolution. Through it all, The Strokes still make New York City proud
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  5. 7.5 |   Paste Magazine

    The band’s first album in six years is a far weirder and more challenging listen than The New Abnormal, but that’s largely for the better: the lyrics probe more deeply, weaving deadpan humor with surreal observations, while the music swerves into all sorts of jarring detours
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  6. 7.0 |   Beats Per Minute

    It was Rick Rubin who put the group back into the front line of contemporary rock, maybe this album proves that The Strokes have, two projects into their collaboration, already outgrown the superstar producer-cum-guru
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  7. 7.0 |   Clash

    As old songs become cultural artefacts and time folds in on itself, The Strokes rotate the lens outwards and inwards. What comes next? The future feels more ominous and isolating than hopeful, and that lack of resolve is the reality we have to prepare for
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  8. 7.0 |   Hot Press

    Recording in Costa Rica with Rick Rubin – who provides satisfyingly crisp production – the band largely play to their strengths
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  9. 7.0 |   Far Out

    Some songs fall flat as a result of being built around rudimentary hooks, and yes, the vocals can be grating, but any pair of lenient ears should be able to recognise that in spite of its flaws, this is still pretty damn solid
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  10. 7.0 |   All Music

    Though Is This It and The New Abnormal were frequently worlds apart musically, they both had a spirit that, sadly, isn't always present here. At once overdone and undercooked, Reality Awaits often embodies its feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction all too well
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  11. 7.0 |   Exclaim

    If The New Abnormal was a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice, Reality Awaits is a tart pint of pulpy grapefruit juice
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  12. 6.5 |   Pitchfork

    Full of Auto-Tuned vocals and incisive lyrics, the rock band’s seventh album is doomy, strange, and fully in on the bit
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  13. 6.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    Reality Awaits is a fascinating yet tortured delusion from The Strokes
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  14. 6.0 |   Spectrum Culture

    The Strokes’ Reality Awaits may prove to be too obscure and, improbably, thorny for the sort of immediate pleasure that the band used to create so effortlessly
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  15. 6.0 |   Rolling Stone

    The veteran band’s latest album is an at times thrilling, often inscrutable, sometimes straight-up bizarre addition to their story
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  16. 6.0 |   musicOMH

    New York outfit's seventh album sums up the band themselves - sometimes brilliant, often frustrating, but always worth listening to
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  17. 6.0 |   The Skinny

    The Strokes have fun exploring… sometimes hitting the mark, sometimes not
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  18. 6.0 |   PopMatters

    The Strokes’ Reality Awaits doesn’t deliver the same charm or hit with the same immediacy fans have come to expect from them
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  19. 5.0 |   XS Noize

    Competent rather than captivating, it is a respectable addition to the catalogue, but one that is unlikely to rank alongside the band’s finest work
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  20. 5.0 |   Slant Magazine

    The songs rarely cohere into anything greater than the sum of their individual parts
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  21. 4.0 |   The Arts Desk

    I’m a huge advocate for Auto-Tune when it's used with purpose, but here it feels like it's fighting against everything that made The Strokes great
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