The Strokes Reality Awaits is finally here — after six years of silence, they’re back with a full tracklist, a release date, and one of the most low-key cool album rollouts in recent memory. The seventh studio album and their first release since 2020’s The New Abnormal, it’s scheduled to arrive on June 26, 2026. For anyone who’s been waiting patiently — or impatiently — since the pandemic era, the wait is almost over.
The Strokes confirmed the album on April 6, 2026, via a short teaser video posted to social media featuring a vintage car and the text: “In the flesh, it’s even sexier.” The reveal was followed by the title and summer release date. No press release, no lengthy statement — just a very Strokes way of doing things.
Even the lead single rollout was unconventional. The band distributed cassette tapes containing the new song “Going Shopping” to 100 fans who had provided their mailing address to a promotional SMS service the previous week. The track has since made its way to streaming platforms for everyone else.
Reality Awaits was produced by Rick Rubin, who also helmed The New Abnormal. That album won the Grammy for Best Rock Album and reintroduced the band to a new generation of listeners. Having Rubin back in the producer’s chair is a strong signal of continuity — and confidence.
In a 2022 appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, Rubin mentioned he had been recording with the Strokes in Costa Rica, which means this album has been a long time coming — and was at least partially in motion years before the official announcement.
Reality Awaits contains nine tracks: “Psycho Shit,” “Dine N’ Dash,” “Lonely in the Future,” “Falling out of Love,” “Going to Babble On,” “Going Shopping,” “Liar’s Remorse,” “The Fruits of Conquest,” and “Pros and Cons.” Nine songs — the same count as The New Abnormal — lean, no filler.
The album artwork was created by Johann Rashid and is based on the 1989 photograph (Untitled) Cowboy by Richard Prince — a conceptually loaded choice that fits a band that has always been as interested in image as in sound.
What’s Coming Live
The Strokes are set to perform at Coachella 2026, and their confirmed tour dates include Bonnaroo in Manchester, TN, on June 12 and the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival in Saint Paul, MN, on July 19. Outside Lands, Shaky Knees, and several other major festivals are also on the schedule.
The Strokes essentially invented a template for indie rock cool that dozens of bands have spent the last two decades trying to replicate. Is This It still sounds like nothing else. Room on Fire holds up completely. Even the more divisive records in their catalog — Angles, Comedown Machine — have their devoted corners.
Reality Awaits arrives not as a comeback (they didn’t need one after The New Abnormal) but as a statement that they’re still here, still on their own terms, and still worth paying attention to.
The album drops June 26. Pre-order it now, and if you don’t already have the back catalog on vinyl, come see us. We keep The Strokes well stocked.
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