The New Reality for The Strokes

Following up to their major success on 2020’s “The New Abnormal”, The Strokes are finding themselves in a new reality…one full of wonky auto tune?

To be fair, the auto tune doesn’t sound that bad, it just wasn’t expected out nor desired out of The Strokes music. Full discrepancy, I’m a fan of Julian Casablanca’s work with the Voidz so I am partial to that “experimental” sound. However, it did take a couple run throughs of the album’s 9 tracks to grow on me.

Instrumentally the album sounds a bit darker and moody compared to their previous work. “Dine N Dash” being one that sounds like if “The Adults are Talking” was made in an alternate universe. “Falling Out of Love” is a 7-minute track at a slower bpm that doesn’t feel drawn out. It’s a well put together song that doesn’t overstay its welcome and I actually think the autotune adds to it. In a Rolling Stone interview, Julian Casablancas described that the auto tune allowed him to explore new melodies and reach different notes. In a way, the auto tune sounds compressed and adds character to his vocal lines similar to the lo-fi effects used on the early records.

“Lonely in the Future” is a tongue and cheek song about being ahead of the times, almost as if The Strokes knew this album wouldn’t be received as well but that people would appreciate it when looking back.

Those are the top three songs, I’ll need to grow my ear on the rest.

Overall, 6/11 on the LOUDSCALE.