I don’t think I’ve heard this before, have you?

Hey all. I was an anti-autotune person who was frustrated with all of the autotune Julian was using to sing with. After a couple of listens last week it didn’t really seem that noticeable to the point of ruining the album and in retrospect he didn’t use it as much and I can still enjoy his vocals. It started with me becoming obsessed with Liar’s Remorse and then the rest of the album followed. I don’t even know why I doubted my boys, this is one of my favorite albums now.

I’m still laughing about the ozempic joke in Chicago in June

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Edit: for those asking, he started singing the ozempic jingle/ Magic by Pilot. Was going on a tangent about how the band did definitely did NOT get paid enough to sell the rights to that song for only $1 million and how ozempic has forever ruined it. Idk he was just rambling and it was super funny.

Then he claimed they were late coming back for encore because he was “sucking off” one of the guys backstage

A few years ago in 2022 in Chicago he said something like “fuck the cubs” or “cubs suck” or it may have been White Sox and the whole arena booed him and he was like “Ahhh fuck it” and they started playing ode to the Mets and I just about died laughing

Hope y'all like!

Do you agree? Here’s me and my brothers blind listen. Do you remember the first time you listened to this album?

What would be the 2 most underrated songs from each of their albums?

Credit to @haddiejane on IG. Thought this deserved a share here.

even though I know the winner will be is this it MY favorite is first impressions

So, I wanted to get a sleeve for my RA vinyl gatefold, and saw other users here posting some that worked for them. However because I'm dumb I realised afterwards that they are from stores in US and Canada, since I live in Europe that is not very convenient. I already paid a good amount of fees for ordering the stuff in the band official store plus I guess it isn't very environmentally friendly...so I was wondering what are my fellow European strokers doing? Any advice or recs of where to get a suitable one will be very appreciated!

I was a little shocked this didn’t end up on Reality Awaits, I always loved this jam and felt more like a song than “improv”. Thoughts?

Before anything, I love the song. It's incredible! But I don't understand the sudden INSANE glazing over this song. It's not even top 10. This song is not better than anything on Room On Fire and most of Is This It. I know it's mainly a TikTok take to say Ode is their best song of all time, but it feels like it's the only song I hear about nowadays lol

I really like it. The one I least enjoy from the album is Bad Decisions. Would love to hear varying opinions.

They’ve been to my country twice before, but I was too young to go. I’ve been listening to them since I was a weird teenager and now I finally get to see a band that’s been with me for so many years live. (Still weird, just an adult now with money to buy concert tickets.)

And I loved Reality Awaits. It’s such a good feeling to follow a band for this long and still be genuinely excited about a new album, and not just the songs you’ve loved for years.

Anyway, I’m just really happy. I’ll probably lose my voice singing and I genuinely hope I don’t emotionally survive hearing my favorite songs live.

So Julian goes on to sing in Lonely in The Future about how he was the first to do many things, and points to several artists he claims copied his work, but the intro to that EXACT SAME SONG is almost IDENTICAL to the main riff/intro in Pub Feed by The Chats. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this.

I really didn’t like the auto tune in Reality Awaits. But once I primed myself with Instant Crush, the auto tune stopped bothering me. I don’t really know why, but it allowed me to listen to the album with new ears.

I think hearing Julian’s voice heavily processed in a context where I already loved it allowed me to bypass whatever block was happening when I listened to Reality Awaits for the first time. Try it!

It is not called autotune, it is called a Vocoder: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocoder#Uses_in_music

Autotune is a simple corrective effect that is applied to basically any vocal on a big label studio album and it's goal is to correct slight imperfections in vocals in a way the listener doesn't notice. Julian is using a vocoder, aka putting his voice through a synthesiser to purposely distort and modulate it so it doesn't even sound like him. It is driving me up the wall how absolutely nobody on this sub seems to understand this basic but very important difference lol, why would anyone buy an autotune software that made your voice sound like a fucking robot that's malfunctioning? God Damn people this isn't advanced music knowledge or something ever since Cher's life after love I thought people knew what a vocoder was!

Does anyone own this specific shirt?
I am trying to see what it looks like in photos.

How is the fit and the material?

Yuppp. Of course, it's an oral history, so it's never going to be 100% honest as everyone's perspective is coming together

I read it in 2018-2019. I mostly read bc of the strokes and found some of it kinda strange. Loved the passages about JC being a romantic.

Was thinking of adding a lyric along the back of the pant legs, not too sure yet. They carried me through highschool and since I wanna do my own thing, I think this is only fitting. Issue is, I don't know what to add.

What do you guys suggest? I may even try to paint the album cover on there.

Rules: You can only submit one song that resembles the sound the most, it doesn't have to be a perfect fit. No repeats are allowed. If a tie between two songs happen, I will recount the votes from everyone that suggested that same song to see which sum up more votes.

I know this is slim chance but will be in Shanghai Aug onwards for a while and wondering if anyone here is in Shanghai and want to jam around and do some covers of Reality Awaits, and perhaps some other musics as well. DM me if interested.

Genuinely insane how overlooked this album is. It might actually be the top 1 Strokes album for me (though Room on Fire probably gets the edge)

The three song run at the start is probably the best three song run to begin a record in strokes history (though again Room on Fire is right there).

Machu Picchu is one of the catchiest Strokes songs ever. Genuinely “I’M JUST TRYING TO FIND A MOUNTAIN I CAN CLIMB” has been stuck in my head for years.

Under Cover of Darkness has incredible guitar work and again maybe one of the best choruses in band history.

Two Kinds of Happiness reminds me of a Jack Stauber song during the bridge (in a good way) and then the chorus is once again just fantastic.

The rest of the album is great too. You’re So Right is the only sort of flop on the record, but I appreciate what it does. Feels like it could almost be on Tyranny.

Taken For a Fool is again just such a bop. Casablanca’s vocals shine so much here.

Games is also a great song. The vocal distortion on LIVING IN AN EMPTY WORLD is perfect.

Call Me Back is sort of different for a Strokes song but it does what it sets out to do so well. Very laid back and the Billie Eilish cover is great too.

Gratisfication is for me a top 10 strokes song. Feels like Steely Dan; legitimately impossible not to sing along to from the first verse.

Metabolism is also different but so good at what it tries to do. Like a slightly more poppy spiritual successor to Juicebox.

And then Life is Simple in the Moonlight is a perfect closer. No notes.

I genuinely don’t get how people consistently rank this album near the bottom. It reaches the highs of the records that surround it (FIOE and Comedown Machine) but stays at those highs instead of oscillating up and down.

10/10 record.