![At a group practice, sophomore Layla Gutierrez sings, while seniors Armando Gutierrez and Jaden Cerna play the electric bass and guitar. “It’s cool being in a band with [my sister], but though we’re related, sometimes our ideas in the creative process differ and cause some conflicts,” Armando said. (@hopelesssamaritanband)](https://alisaltrojantribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/067cae3d6e7e8d0fd59cd886c8c689dbc703ed15-14-1033x1200.jpg)
After a 6 year gap since their last album, The Strokes released two new singles “Going Shopping” and “Falling Out of Love” for their upcoming album Reality Awaits, set to be released on June 26th.
After the release of their previous album The New Abnormal, many believed that would be their final album, but on April 6th 2026, they would go onto social media and announce their 7th studio album Reality Awaits with a 80s retro theme teaser showing a snippet of the song “Going Shopping.”
“Going Shopping” was released on April 7th, while “Falling Out of Love” was released on May 13th.
The first single “Going Shopping” is more of an upbeat song. When I first heard this song I was disappointed, coming after one of their best albums with arguably their best and my favorite song of theirs “Ode to The Mets,” I felt that this song was horrible since the autotune felt exaggerated throughout the song.
After listening to it more, it really grew on me, although it wasn’t anywhere near my favorites, it was still a fun song to listen to. The song mainly targets the idea of consumerism and how they want to escape it, “I’m goin’ away to the country, don’t wander off too far, I’m goin’ out my mind, throwin’ all my plans out the window.”
The next single “Falling Out of Love,” is more melancholic and emotionally driven in comparison to “Going Shopping.” This song also had an exaggerated amount of autotune, but I got used to that sound when I initially listened to it so I didn’t have a bad first impression on it.
I felt that even though I liked this song a lot, the autotune was still holding it back from being arguably one of their best songs on their discography. Since vocals aside the instrumentation and lyrics of the song is amazing, but the extra amount of autotune drags it down a lot.
The song talks about the bittersweet feeling of realization where your relationship is coming to an end. “I denied, for a while, fallin’ out of love for the first time, some things are flawed by design, but I’m fine for the first time.”
Overall, after many listens I did enjoy these two singles a lot. Even though they’re not their best work, I still think these two songs are definitely great and worth listening to, since I felt like these two songs are more unique compared to the rest of their discography with the amount of autotune. I would give “Going Shopping” an 8 out of 10, and “Falling Out of Love” a 9 out of 10.
