The Strokes have a new album, 'Reality Awaits', coming this summer
News of 'Reality Awaits' - The Strokes' first record since 2020 - arrives with a retro-styled teaser clip and a vague promise of a summer release.
Six years on from their last studio record, The Strokes have revealed details of a new album. 'Reality Awaits' will arrive this summer, with the band sharing a short teaser clip alongside the announcement on social media.
The reveal came in the form of a retro-styled photo of a car, accompanied by the tagline 'In The Flesh, It's Even Sexier', evoking an eighties magazine-advert aesthetic that the band have been leaning into across their recent visual rollout. A brief musical snippet was also included, though no full singles or tracklist details have been confirmed at this stage.
The announcement might be the first official word on new Strokes music, but it hasn't exactly come from nowhere. The band had been leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for months. Earlier visuals of a notepad and a cassette tape implied studio activity, while the band had clearly started their latest project rollout more recently, with a few surprise shows and mailing list signups.
Frontman Julian Casablancas said back in 2023 that a new album was still a long way off, but producer Rick Rubin — who helmed 'The New Abnormal' — later spoke about working with the group again, with the band reportedly settling in Costa Rica to write new material.
Over the weekend, The Strokes returned to the stage at The Warfield in San Francisco on 4th April, performing alongside Alex Cameron, though the setlist drew entirely from their existing catalogue. A packed schedule of live appearances now stretches through the rest of the year, taking in major festivals on both sides of the Pacific — including both weekends of Coachella, Bonnaroo, Summer Sonic in Japan, Outside Lands and Shaky Knees. Among other names playing alongside them across the circuit are Interpol, Geese and The xx.
Since their extended hiatus, the individual members have kept busy. Casablancas has been working with his side project The Voidz on new material, while guitarist Albert Hammond Jr released his solo album 'Melodies on Hiatus' in 2023.
The dates in full read:
APRIL
6 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco, US
11 Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Indio, US
18 Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Indio, US
JUNE
12 Bonnaroo, Manchester TN, US
JULY
19 Minnesota Yacht Club Festival, Saint Paul, US
AUGUST
8 Outside Lands, San Francisco, US
14-16 Summer Sonic 2026, Tokyo + Osaka, Japan
22 Just Like Heaven Festival, Pasadena, US
SEPTEMBER
18 Shaky Knees Festival, Atlanta, US
20 Sea.Hear.Now Festival, Asbury Park, US
