Albert Hammond Jr has explained why The Strokes’ new album release was delayed.
Back in April, the New York indie legends dropped their new single Going Shopping and announced their seventh studio album Reality Awaits would be released on June 26.
However, with one week to go until the release date, they told fans it was being pushed back to July 24 and guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. took to X to explain why.
According to NME, in a now deleted response to a fan, he shared that the band wanted its streaming release date to match the vinyl release.
He also commented that the music on the record sounds like it was made by a “weird, young band”.
Reality Awaits follows 2020s The New Abnormal but the group had been linked to new music since 2022, when producer Rick Rubin mentioned recording sessions in Costa Rica.
Hammond Jr told NME at the time: “I think he was just so excited about where we recorded.
“But I don’t know what to say about it – I don’t have any information on it. It’s not like it’s happening and I’m hiding something. We went and did a bunch of recording. It could come out a year or two years from now – it’s an unknown amount of time when it’ll be finished but, yes, we are working on another record.”
He later confirmed that the band had completed a significant amount of recording, while frontman Julian Casablancas acknowledged ongoing work but said the project was not close to release at the time.
He said the band had completed “a bunch of recording” but admitted he had no idea when the project would be finished, stressing that it could take “a year or two years” before anything surfaced.
Julian later addressed the speculation on Instagram, acknowledging that the band were indeed working together again but warning fans that they were still far from releasing new material.
Reality Awaits tracklist:
1. Psycho S***
2. Dine N Dash
3. Lonely In The Future
4. Falling Out Of Love
5. Going To Babble On
6. Going Shopping
7. Liars Remorse
8. The Fruits Of Conquest
9. Pros And Cons