As short-form content continues to consume the lives of younger generations, it’s becoming hard to stay relevant in a news cycle that’s constantly searching for so-called fresh and exciting material. Musicians are forced to adapt to this growing demand for content or risk fading into obscurity. Yet, The Strokes, a band long known for its tendency to take extended hiatuses, manage to gather the public’s attention every time they tease new music.
Considered by Lizzy Goodman to be “as influential to their era as the Velvet Underground or the Ramones were to theirs,” The Strokes are reemerging at a time when other standout rock acts are few and far between. Although bands like Geese are gaining steady popularity, the state of modern rock remains bleak. After a six-year break, The Strokes are back on the scene with their new single “Going Shopping.”
A teaser of their new album Reality Awaits combines retro and futurist aesthetics, featuring an old Corvette with the text “In the flesh, it’s even sexier.” The band continued their promotional tour by mailing cassettes with the new single to 100 lucky fans. Already, social media has been flooded with memes stating “It’s time for The Strokes summer,” and the hype continues to build after The Strokes announced their world tour, beginning in Manchester, Tenn. as a headliner at Bonnaroo Music Festival.
“Going Shopping” made its live debut in San Francisco on April 6 with Julian Casablancas, the band’s lead singer, prefacing the performance: “Why not, it’s already out there.” The song opens with a bright guitar and Casablancas’ auto-tuned vocals singing “Like a tiger they will chase you down / With words instead of claws.” He doesn’t hesitate before jumping into a critique of society’s tendency to ignore its problems in favor of “cool stuff.” The lyrics seem abstract at first: Casablancas drags out his lines, singing about the Dead Sea, a little red jumpsuit, stockbrokers and the mall. Nonetheless, it all comes together to create a caricature of a person ignorant of his social responsibilities. The influence of capitalism is present in every crevice of the song.
Casablancas takes on this persona effortlessly, his intonation making it clear that his willingness to embrace the narrative is part of the mockery. Despite suffering at the hands of the system, the song’s character continues to forgo fighting back and chooses to seek an escape in the spoils of shopping. They’re “goin’ away to the country” and “throwin’ all (their) plans out the window.” “Going Shopping” ends with Casablancas spitting out, “If you’re better than me, you don’t have to judge me.” It’s the only moment of directness throughout a song that’s otherwise full of strange fantasies.
Sonically, the single harkens to Comedown Machine, the band’s fifth studio album, as well as Casablancas’ other band, The Voidz. Inspired by synth-pop and weird surf-rock, The Strokes sound like they’re having fun. It’s not The New Abnormal, but it has its charm. The Strokes translated the album’s retro-futuristic visuals directly into the music, pairing a clean, nostalgic tone with modern, digitally processed vocals. The result is almost hypnotic: The melodies of the guitar loop and drift around, not caring whether or not you hear them. The single demands your attention only as Casablancas sings about his mall shopping sprees, but the moments are fleeting and quickly swallowed by the track’s desire to adhere to its repetitiveness.
In an era dominated by immediacy and constant reinvention, The Strokes keep up through their experimentation. The track’s fragmented narrative mirrors the very culture it seeks to criticize, one consumed by distraction and unwilling to confront itself. As the guitar loops around your mind, you can’t help but indulge in the illusion of the escape it so carefully constructs. “Going Shopping” may drift and daze, but underneath it all lies an emptiness waiting to be exposed. As Reality Awaits rapidly approaches its release date, The Strokes reminds us that even in a culture obsessed with constant noise, something slower, stranger and more deliberate can still cut through.
Daily Arts Writer Caroline Nowik can be reached at cnowik@umich.edu.
