The Strokes have a new single out this week, and it’s a fluttering daydream of a tune that’s taking us to an alternate reality where the New York City indie band is getting set to headline Boston Calling next weekend. Of course, the Harvard Athletic Complex will be empty over the Memorial Day holiday, but the airy breeziness of this new sad bop has us exploring all the coulda-shoulda-woulda’s, especially after the band bailed on the ’22 edition due to illness.
But hey that’s ok, we’re left with “Falling out of Love,” a 2026 song title if there ever was one, and the track is a weird, six-minute ballad that’s falling more and more in love with autotune with each passing verse.
A new Strokes record called Reality Awaits, recorded in Costa Rica with producer Rick Rubin, arrives June 26, and we got the first taste through lead single “Going Shopping” not too long ago. It’s the follow-up to 2020’s The New Abnormal, which had a few crowd-pleasers on it (“The Adults Are Talking,” “Bad Decisions”), so we’ll have to see what the rest of this long-player has in store. Feels like it could go either way after hearing the first two offerings.
There is, in fact, a Boston date on the horizon for Julian and the lads, as they play TD Garden three days before the album drop. Hear both new tracks below.
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