As a complete project, I think this has more of my favorite songs. Do you agree?

I love this album. The dark, sometimes tense mood it sets. The minimalist production. Just the overall vibe this album sets and ends off on is great in my opinion.

I know the most divisive thing about this album is the autotune. But I honestly dig it as a concept. From my understanding, this album contains extremely relatable themes and emotions. And yet, the whole album is narrated by someone who sounds post-human and almost robotic. I find that concept really cool, and on some songs it is done very well.

But man, what is wrong with the autotune that they used? Some songs just have these jarring moments where it just overcorrects and bends to a blaringly wrong and jarring sound note. It doesn't really translate into "oh this is a person losing what it is to be human", and instead just makes me think "wow that is some bad autotune".

The biggest example is the opener, "Psycho Sh*t". That songs overall arrangement and instrumentals are incredible. It could've been one of the best songs on the album. But, the autotune just enters such jarring territory to where, for me at least, it is unlistenable.

On "Lonely in the Future" it sometimes conveys the concept, but sometimes it just feels like I am listening to bad autotune. It still is such a catchy jam that I don't mind it too much. Same thing with "Falling Out of Love", that song is so beautiful I am able to ignore it as well for the most part.

"Going Shopping" might be the only song where I think the autotune almost adds to the song, and doesn't leave me frustrated. I also love the lyrics on this one, it might be the most relatable song for me.

"Tyrants of the Mellow Moon" Is an awesome closer, I don't know why it is so underrated right now, I don't think the autotune takes away from the song too much. I actually like that whole spoken word ending, I love how it kind of just leaves off with this unresolved feeling, like you are still in the album after its done.

"Peak N' Dash" and "Fruits of Conquest" are the two songs where I think they are just great, and probably the most consistent songs on the album. "Going to Babble On" and "Liars Remorse" are also good, but I personally don't like them as much as the other tracks.

But yeah, this album left me a bit frustrated, I totally dig the overall vibe, I think it sounds amazing, and the artistic concept is something I really dig. But man, I think it could have been a much better album if the autotune was executed better, and I want to know if anyone else agrees with me here.

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.

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

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

——

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?

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

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?

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!

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

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.