The Strokes share slow-burning new single ‘Falling Out Of Love’ from upcoming album ‘Reality Awaits’

The Strokes have kept the rollout for their new album moving with ‘Falling Out Of Love’, a tender, slow-burning follow-up to last month’s lead single ‘Going Shopping’. It’s the latest glimpse of Reality Awaits, due out on June 26 (pre-order here).

The New York band started teasing new music earlier this year, telling fans they would “be in touch” about a new release before confirming the album title. That first burst of news landed with the promise of a new Strokes era, and now the picture is getting a little clearer, one song at a time.

‘Falling Out Of Love’, shared today (Wednesday May 13), leans into a more stripped-back, romantic mood than its predecessor. The song folds gentle, swirling guitar lines around Julian Casablancas’ voice as he sings about heartbreak and the strange comfort of being alone. “Took you out to my hometown/ Where I learned to be alone/ Riding up the mountainside/ Where all the world’s here,” he sings.

For much of the track, Casablancas runs his vocal through a vocoder, giving it a familiar sheen for anyone who knows the band’s recent work, from the 2013 Daft Punk collaboration ‘Instant Crush’ to 2020’s ‘At the Door’. The chorus lands on a line that sounds bruised and strangely relieved at once: “Hiding out for a while/ Falling out of love for the first time/ Some things are flawed by design/ But I’m fine for the first time.”

“Dancing in acid rain alone with you/ But I don’t wanna do it anymore/ I guess I’ll sing alone,” he adds, keeping the song in that uneasy space where melancholy and release sit right next to each other.

‘Falling Out Of Love’ arrives as the fourth track on the nine-song tracklist for Reality Awaits. The album was recorded in Costa Rica with producer Rick Rubin before being completed in several international locations.

The band’s last single, ‘Going Shopping’, drew a three-star review from NME, which noted that it “doesn’t feel bold” but also “does avoid playing anything safe.” The review also said, “You couldn’t definitively place its sound on any of The Strokes’ previous six albums, but the lack of spirit and tenacity, save for a guitar solo at the end, is noticeable.” It added: “‘If you’re better than me you don’t have to judge me’, signs off Casablancas, with an imaginary raised eyebrow. But perhaps even he would admit that The Strokes are better than this.”

Since that release, The Strokes have played Coachella 2026, where they called out the CIA and the United States government, and they’re now lining up more festival dates at Bonnaroo, Summer Sonic and beyond.

They’ve also announced a major tour across the UK, North America, Europe and Japan. It will be their first full run of headline dates in the UK and Ireland in more than 20 years, with a stop at London’s O2 among the shows. Support comes from Thundercat, Cage the Elephant, Hamilton Leithauser, Fat White Family, Alex Cameron and ÖLÜM, and tickets are available here.

New music from the band arrives after Casablancas said in 2024 that he was “stepping away” from The Strokes to focus on The Voidz, though he also made clear how he sees the group in his life. “It’s a very cool day job that I’m honoured to have, so I don’t feel negatively about it,” he said.

Rick Rubin, meanwhile, told The Joe Rogan Experience in 2022 that the band made the album “on the top of a mountain” and “didn’t want to leave” because they were having “the best experience.” Guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. later echoed that sentiment, saying it was “one of his favourite recording experiences.”

“I don’t think if I told you what it looked like and what it was, you’d fully understand the ‘magical-ness’ of where we were and how it was to record like that,” he said, before adding that he still thinks there’s more to come from the band. “I really think what excites me about wanting to play music and continue doing it is, I don’t think we’ve written our best songs yet. I really feel that in my gut.”