For most of us now in our 20s and 30s, there’s hardly a band more definitive of our Indie-rock guitar-band-loving days than The Strokes. We’ve all pre-gamed a little too hard for a party to the dulcet tones of Last Nite, or found ourselves queuing The Adults Are Talking on Spotify for a long weekend drive. But for the last six years, we’ve been left barren of new tunes from the New York musicians. Until now.
The Strokes are set to play the first set of Coachella 2026 weekend one, and have been warming up with small club dates in San Francisco (playing the Warfield on 4 April and Bill Graham Civic Auditorium on 6 April). To mark the occasion, they’ve begun teasing a new album – their first since 2020’s The New Abnormal. Here’s what we know so far.
What’s been announced so far?
What’s been confirmed so far is that the album is called Reality Awaits, according to a teaser trailer dropped on the band’s social platforms on Monday. There’s a tagline too: “In the flesh, it’s even sexier.”
At this point, we don’t have a track list just yet – except that the band has released the first song from the new album today. It’s called Going Shopping, and you can listen to on all streaming platforms now.
When will it be released?
26 June 2026 is the official release date.
Will they tour the album?
It’s looking likely that the band will take the new album on tour – with Coachella kicking things off this weekend and next. They already have spots booked in at festivals like Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, and Summer Sonic in the USA and Japan. (We’re also hoping for an Australia and New Zealand leg of the tour given they’ll be geographically nearby in Japan this August. Time will tell.)
