The Strokes announce seventh studio album Reality Awaits

The Strokes have announced their seventh studio album, Reality Awaits, which is set to be “out this summer”, according to a social media post by the band.

The album was announced via a video on social media, which featured a 1980’s Nissan 300ZX and the tagline “In The Flesh, It’s Even Sexier.”

Reality Awaits comes more than 6 years after The Strokes’s 2020 album, The New Abnormal, which won a Grammy that year for Best Rock Album. The New Abnormal, in turn, was released 7 years after the album before it, Comedown Machine.

Speaking on the long gap between albums in an interview after the release of The New Abnormal, bassist Nikolai Fraiture said, “It’s just a matter of when it feels right to put something out, and when it feels right for all of us, based on what we're all doing in our lives.”

Since The New Abnormal, the band members of The Strokes have been pursuing a number of different projects on their own: 2023 saw a solo album from guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. and an EP from Fraiture’s band Summer Moon; 2024 saw an album from lead singer Julian Casablancas’s band The Voidz and an EP from guitarist Nick Valensi’s band CRX.

The Strokes are set to play at Coachella this weekend, and will be playing at a number of different festivals this summer, including Bonaroo, Outside Lands, and the Sea.Hear.Now Festival.