New record review: The Strokes ‘Reality Awaits’

Six years after the release of The New Abnormal, The Strokes have returned with a new album that’s once again fitting for bizarre times, Reality Awaits (RCA/Cult).

The band’s previous LP, which won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Album, arrived when the world was shut down due to COVID-19. (Its title managed to come off like a timely play on the then-popular phrase ‘The new normal.’) Now things have been turned upside down again, this time on multiple fronts, so what better time for The Strokes to release a new album?

Reality Awaits, like any album (versus a collection of songs best streamed on Spotify), gets better with repeated listens. Upon first hearing the LP, the listener is struck by its unusual lyrics, delivered by a heavily autotuned Julian Casablancas. Yet the instrumentation is as solid as ever, and Casablancas’ talent for melody is undeniable, despite the choice to obscure his vocals with effects.

Amid at-times stream-of-consciousness rambling, Casablancas drops sarcastic, self-aware gems like ‘Only my ‘beloved’ songs will define me’ (‘Psycho Shit’) and ‘I’ve been thinking about what I want to say, but I’m an old man now, at least that’s what they tell me anyway’ (‘Going Shopping’). He even uses a song title as an apparent warning (‘Going To Babble On’) and hits a lyrical low point when he starts repeating ‘I'm a leech’ over and over (‘The Fruits Of Conquest’).

But the album has more highs than lows. The melancholic ‘Falling Out Of Love,’ though not as epic, gives The New Abnormal’s ‘At The Door’ a run for its money. ‘Going Shopping,’ the ultra-catchy lead single, is The Strokes at their classic best. What can one do during a time of unrelenting crises? The band offers as good an answer as any in the song’s video: Ham it up in a wacky, politically tinged clip, starring actor Walton Goggins.

The album has been in the works since at least 2022, when guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. described the ‘magical-ness’ of the experience of working in Costa Rica with producer Rick Rubin, who also produced The New Abnormal. Since then, the band has resumed touring regularly, this summer without fellow guitarist Nick Valensi, who is on a temporary break.

Whether the ‘magical-ness’ of those sessions has shone through on the final product isn’t yet clear. These are different times, when it’s easier to lose oneself in the comfort of time-worn yacht rock than listen to a challenging new album from a band that continues to prove their relevance.

It might take a few more listens, but I’m game.

At top: The cover of Reality Awaits, based on Untitled (Cowboy) by Richard Prince (1989)

2020 was a dark year for music, but there were bright spots

Early in 2020, it looked to be a dazzling year for live music.

Bands like the Strokes, the Psychedelic Furs, and Duran Duran were planning to deliver long-awaited studio albums, with tours likely to follow. By March, around the time COVID-19 took hold in the U.S., there were already tours announced by the likes of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and dates by the reunited Bauhaus (we had tickets for both). Early in the year, I’d already seen two concerts, one by 69 Eyes and another by The Reverend Horton Heat with the Buttertones.

But live music soon came to a screeching halt amid the global pandemic. Bands like Duran Duran shelved their albums. Others went ahead with their releases, giving music fans much-needed hope during a dark time.

These are some of the great albums of 2020:

The Psychedelic Furs could have waited another year; after all, the band’s previous studio album came out nearly 30 years ago. But the Furs finally delivered “Made of Rain.” The band couldn’t back the critically lauded album with live shows, but the music will be just as fresh when a return to the stage is possible. Read the review.

The Strokes ended a seven-year hiatus with “The New Abnormal,” and there wasn’t a more fitting album for its time. The New York band combined all its classic sound with a dose of ’80s flair: the track listing included writing credits for Billy Idol and the brothers Butler (of the Furs). The Strokes released a batch of stunning videos, launched a Zoom series, performed on “Saturday Night Live,” and earned their first Grammy nomination. Read the review.

The Buttertones released ”Jazzhound,” showing all the promise that had propelled them to their status as perpetual up-and-comers. About three months later, the Los Angeles band imploded amid allegations of sexual abuse (Read more). Some fans declared the band unfairly canceled, but the silence of lead singer Richard Araiza only raised questions. After more than a month, he and guitarist Modeste Cobian released a video statement on Instagram. The duo’s denial of wrongdoing and promise of a comeback in 2021 mostly failed to resonate with the band’s core fans. 

Also in 2020: Muzz, a “supergroup” led by Interpol vocalist Paul Banks, released a self-titled effort, its debut no less. When he couldn’t tour, Nick Cave recorded the haunting “Idiot Prayer,” alone with a piano at Alexandra Palace. The Damned tided fans over with “The Rockfield Files” EP. Read the review.

As for Duran, the band wants to support any new release with live shows. While that’s not possible now, at least in a conventional way, Duran opted to largely stay quiet in 2020. John Taylor delivered an entertaining round of bass tutorials and interviews after recovering from COVID. Simon Le Bon also endured a bout with the virus and carried on with his Spotify podcast. Optimistically, the band has announced live shows for next summer.

Along with an annual list of top live shows, I also won’t be compiling Duran Duran’s top moments of the year for the first time since 2011. If Duran's 2021 concerts are able to take place, its 15th studio album may finally materialize. But it appears that a true 40th anniversary celebration for the band may be falling by the wayside due to COVID. 

True, there are more important things than music in these times. But it sure would have been nice to have had one more bright spot during a dismal 2020. 

New record review: The Strokes 'The New Abnormal'

The Strokes are back to bring some much-needed chill to the chaos of the world with the band’s first album in seven years, the somewhat prophetically titled “The New Abnormal.”

It’s appropriate that the Strokes, a band that rose in the shadow of one of the country’s most chaotic times, have returned today. The New York band’s first album, “Is This It,” surfaced on CD in the U.S. after the Sept. 11 attacks. The CD, the preferred format of the time, was delayed for release due to its “sexually explicit” cover, and the song “New York City Cops” was scrubbed from the post-9/11 track list. 

Of course, the delay didn’t stop the Strokes’ trajectory. Over the course of five albums, the band perfected its sound when so many other bands of the late '90s/early 2000s garage rock/post-punk revival stalled or faded away.

In 2020, the Strokes have released an album that sounds like the Strokes at their catchiest, produced by Rick Rubin, to boot. It’s a shame that the band members are quarantined like the rest of us, promoting the album via a Zoom listening session instead of onstage.

But as Julian Casablancas sings, “life is such a funny journey.” The song in question, "Eternal Summer," is perhaps the album’s best and most adventurous track, with Casablancas choosing to use his falsetto instead of his trademark croon. (It also samples the Psychedelic Furs’ '80s gem “Ghost in You.”) "At the Door" is reminiscent of "80s Comedown Machine," the best and most experimental song on the band's previous full-length album, "Comedown Machine."

Still, it’s comforting to hear that Casablancas croon alongside an Albert Hammond Jr. riff, and “The New Abnormal” delivers plenty of those moments. “Why Are Sundays So Depressing” and “Not the Same Anymore” are perhaps the most classic-sounding Strokes tracks here. 

The new wave side of the Strokes is apparent on “The New Abnormal,” too, and it’s as appealing as ever. The chorus of “Bad Decisions” sounds so much like “Dancing With Myself” that ’80s icon Billy Idol gets a writing credit. On “Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus,” Casblancas even asks: “And the eighties bands? Oh, where did they go?” 

The album closes with “Ode to the Mets,” a sad tribute to the baseball team, or perhaps anything that lets one down. “The New Abnormal” is not one of those things.

There are so many cool elements on the album, perhaps none more so than in “Ode to the Mets” when Casablancas interjects mid-song, “Drums please, Fab.” 

Moments like those make it seem like the Strokes have never been more content to just be the Strokes. Hopefully, when this is all over, they still are, because the world still really needs them.

At top, the album cover features the Jean-Michel Basquiat painting "Bird on Money" circa 1981. (Cult and RCA Records)