The most chaotic and polarizing rock record of the year has just arrived

Song of the Day: “Going Shopping” by The Strokes

Jul 28, 2026

The Strokes are back, and they would like you to know that they are no longer wearing leather exclusively in damp Manhattan alleys. Their seventh studio album, Reality Awaits (Released July 24, 2026), finds New York’s favorite sons reuniting with producer Rick Rubin to deliver a collection of songs that leans heavily into maximalist sonic wanderlust… Which is a pretnetious way of saying, it’s kinda all over the place. Where early records like Is This It sold fans on the feeling of a spontaneous, totally unpolished performance (even if it wasn’t), this record leans entirely into the artifice, presenting a veteran group probing the boundaries of their own legacy with a mix of boredom and amusement. It is sprawling, occasionally baffling, and thoroughly unbothered by what anyone expects this band from 2001 to sound like in 2026.

This record sits as an eccentric next step in the band’s ongoing evolution. The tight precision of their early era gave way to the large-scale sprawl of First Impressions of Earth and the synthesizer experiments of Angles and Comedown Machine, culminating in the triumphant, Grammy-winning sheen of 2020’s The New Abnormal. Reality Awaits takes that late-career creative freedom and runs completely wild with it. Julian Casablancas and company indulge every single studio impulse they encounter, resulting in an album where playful self-awareness bumps shoulders with wandering, synth-heavy tangents.

Yet, amidst the album’s sprawling detours, “Going Shopping” emerges above the rest as a standout track. While other moments on the record risk disappearing into a haze of excessive vocal effects (auto-tune gone wild!) and meandering song lengths, this track anchors itself with a remarkably sharp hook and wry sense of humor. The music video, directed by longtime collaborator Johann Rashid, leans fully into the playful, self-aware absurdity that defines the track. Rather than playing it straight, the clip functions as a direct homage to Paul Simon’s iconic video for “You Can Call Me Al,” trading Chevy Chase’s classic role with actor Walton Goggins. Casablancas delivers a performance that manages to be wry without losing its emotional punch, proving that even as The Strokes drift further into experimental territory, their capacity for writing immediate, structurally sound rock music remains intact.