The Strokes reignite their signature spark on “Going Shopping,” the long-awaited lead single off their upcoming seventh album ‘Reality Awaits’ – a restless, electrifying, and irresistibly upbeat rush of indie rock that finds them navigating identity, impulse, and the strange, overstimulated rhythm of modern life.

Stream: “Going Shopping” – The Strokes

The worse reality gets, the less you wanna hear about it…

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Falling back into a band you’ve loved for years rewires something in you –

– old songs snap back into focus, guitar lines hit harder, familiar lyrics resonate in fresh ways, and suddenly you remember exactly why it all mattered in the first place.

I’ve been deep in a Strokes spiral lately, so the recent arrival of “Going Shopping” feels much less like a coincidence and more like perfect timing – a reminder that these special connections to our favorite artists never really fade, they just wait for the right moment to come rushing back. It’s like stepping into a room you know by heart, only to find everything subtly touched up, refreshed, and maybe rearranged. “Going Shopping” doesn’t just revisit The Strokes’ DNA; it refracts it, sharpening their signature cool into music that’s slicker, sweeter, and a little more playful.

Like a tiger, they will chase you down
With words instead of claws
They will seduce you
’til you reach the point
To let yourself get mauled, oh
The worse reality gets,
the less you wanna hear about it
Solidarity can be difficult
When you got cool stuff to lose

Released April 7 via RCA Records, “Going Shopping” is The Strokes’ first hint of new music since 2020’s The New Abnormal – a record that reestablished their place at the forefront of modern rock – and the lead single off their newly announced seventh studio album Reality Awaits. Dynamic and deceptively loose, built on a groove that feels effortless and light, “Going Shopping” is a tight, kinetic burst of indie rock that leans into everything The Strokes have always done best, while quietly stretching their edges. The guitars are wiry, angular, and playful, full of bright, zig-zagging licks that give the song a buoyant, almost carefree momentum, while Julian Casablancas threads it all together with Auto-Tuned vocal flourishes that feel surprisingly natural – not a gimmick, but an evolution. It’s sleek, a little strange, and undeniably alive.

I wanna be a 7-foot zombie
The pay is low, but I gotta do somethin’
I’m at the mall and the song is bumpin’
There goes my future wife
in the little red jumpsuit

I’m goin’ away to the country
Don’t wander off too far
I’m goin’ out my mind
Throwin’ all my plans out the window
Don’t wanna waste my life
I’ll see you on the other side

Beneath that glossy, danceable surface, though, the song plays with tension between escape and entanglement – consumerism, identity, and the quiet dread of watching your own life take shape in ways you’re not sure you chose. Lines like “The worse reality gets, the less you wanna hear about it” cut through the shimmer, grounding the track in more uneasy territory, while the chorus – “I’m goin’ out my mind / Throwin’ all my plans out the window / Don’t wanna waste my life” – turns that anxiety into motion. It’s restless, impulsive, a little absurd in its imagery, but that’s the point: A world spinning faster than it makes sense, met with a shrug and a sprint toward whatever comes next.

Solidarity can be difficult when you got cool stuff to lose…

* * *

From the first seconds, the song sets that tone in motion. Fuzzy guitars crackle to life over warm, cheerful keys and an irresistibly bouncy beat. Casablancas enters half-detached, half-dialed-in, delivering lines that blur instinct and observation: Predators disguised as poets, desire wrapped in danger, connection framed as something you might willingly walk into knowing the cost. “They will seduce you ‘til you reach the point / To let yourself get mauled” reads like both warning and invitation – a reflection on how easily we trade clarity for comfort, or truth for whatever feels good in the moment.

That push continues through the verse, where reality itself becomes negotiable – an experience to tune out, reshape, or ignore altogether. “Solidarity can be difficult / When you got cool stuff to lose” lands with a smirk and a sting, capturing the quiet compromises that come with comfort, status, and self-preservation. It’s observational without being preachy, sharp without losing its sense of play, threading commentary into the song’s rhythm instead of stopping to underline it.

I’ve been thinkin’ about what I wanna say
But I’m an old man now
At least that’s what they tell me anyway
We’ve been expanding on our greatness
Building future ruins
We’re buildin’ castles from the bones of dead trees
Molded from the shattered ashes of the Dead Sea

I moved away to the country
I had to change my way
But I kinda miss you now
Stockbrokers flyin’ out the window
I kinda miss that sound
Don’t wanna wake up Pa (Haha)

And that’s where “Going Shopping” really thrives – in that balance between detachment and immersion, irony and sincerity.

The imagery grows stranger as it unfolds, but the feeling underneath stays grounded: The urge to escape, to reinvent, to outrun the version of yourself you’re no longer sure fits. Whether it’s the surreal humor of being a “7-foot zombie” or the fleeting clarity of spotting a “future wife” in passing, everything feels heightened, fleeting, just out of reach – like life itself is moving too fast to fully grasp, but too vivid to ignore.

The chorus itself feels like a release valve, a sudden burst of charged motion after everything the verse sets in place. “I’m goin’ away to the country / Don’t wander off too far” plays like a half-formed escape plan, equal parts fantasy and instinct, while “I’m goin’ out my mind / Throwin’ all my plans out the window” captures the tipping point where overthinking gives way to action. It’s impulsive, a little reckless, but deeply human – the moment where you stop trying to map it all out and just move, even if you don’t fully understand where you’re going.

There’s also a strange duality running through it: Escape and attachment tangled together. The idea of leaving – heading for the country, throwing everything away – exists right alongside a pull toward connection, toward the people and places that keep surfacing no matter how far you try to drift. That closing line, “I’ll see you on the other side,” lands less like a goodbye and more like a promise, suggesting that even in the chaos, even in the urge to disappear, there’s still a thread tying it all – and deeper still, tying us all – together.

By the time the chorus returns and mutates – shifting from country to city, from leaving to circling back – that tension deepens into a restless loop. Movement becomes the constant, not the destination. Plans get tossed, rewritten, abandoned, picked back up again. Nowhere is safe, nowhere is perfect for too long, and the grass is always and inevitably greener on the other side. It’s a portrait of a mind in motion, chasing clarity and finding momentum instead, turning uncertainty into its own kind of propulsion.

I can’t wait, I’m goin’ shoppin’
I’m at the mall and the song is bumpin’
I wanna be a 7-foot starfish
Above the law, a political puppet

Stepping back, “Going Shopping” reveals itself as more than a snapshot of impulse or escape – it’s a reflection of how we navigate a world full of options, distractions, and competing desires.

To “go shopping” here isn’t just literal; it’s emotional, existential. It’s the act of searching for something – identity, meaning, connection – in a landscape where everything is available but nothing fully satisfies. The mall becomes a stand-in for modern life itself: Bright, noisy, full of flashing lights and overlapping voices – endlessly stimulating and quietly overwhelming, a place where you can lose hours, lose focus, even lose yourself without realizing it.

That framing says a lot about where The Strokes are right now. Years removed from the urgency that first defined them, they’re no longer chasing a moment – they’re observing it, poking at it, finding humor in its contradictions while still feeling its weight. There’s a self-awareness running through “Going Shopping” that sharpens its edges without dulling its energy, detachment turned into a lens rather than a shield. It’s reflective without slowing down, playful without losing its bite, capturing a band that understands exactly how strange this all is – and leans into it anyway.

Maybe that’s why “Going Shopping” lands the way it does – not as a grand reinvention, but as a band fully in tune with their instincts, embracing the chaos instead of trying to outrun it. There’s a lightness here that doesn’t ignore the weight underneath, just carries it differently, turning uncertainty into a groove you can move to, shout along with, live inside for a few minutes at a time. It’s a release, but it’s also a recognition – that the noise, the confusion, the constant motion aren’t going anywhere, and maybe they don’t have to.

I’m goin’ back to the city
I’m ’bout to lose my mind
I’m gonna stay alive
I’m climbin’ out through the window
I miss the shops and malls
I’m gonna meet you there
Still throwin’ my phone out the window
I’m gonna soothe my soul
Can’t wait, I’m goin’ shoppin’

For a band that helped define a generation, it’s a thrilling reminder that they’re still finding new ways to make that feeling hit, still able to tap into that restless, wired energy and reshape it into songs that feel immediate, alive, and unmistakably their own. If “Going Shopping” proves anything, it’s that The Strokes still know exactly how to pull us back in – one razor-sharp hook, one sideways lyric, one perfectly off-kilter groove at a time.

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Stream: “Going Shopping” – The Strokes

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