The Strokes return with a ballad that treats Auto-Tune not as polish but as texture, framing emotional distance through restraint rather than release.
Premiered live on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert before its official audio drop, the second single from Reality Awaits stretches to six minutes and twenty-one seconds of loping groove and deliberate digital distortion.
The track arrived on May 13 via Cult/RCA and runs 6:21, a length that immediately signals distance from the taut, nervy singles that once defined them. Instead of clipped urgency, “Falling Out of Love” unfolds around a mid-tempo loping groove. Julian Casablancas’ voice sits at the centre, run through heavy processing that turns his familiar drawl into something cooler and more artificial.
Auto-Tune here functions less as correction and more as aesthetic decision, lending the delivery a detached, slightly synthetic sheen that matches the song’s theme of emotional fatigue and gradual drift.
The production—credited to Rick Rubin, with sessions begun in Costa Rica and completed across multiple locations—gives the arrangement room to breathe. There is no frantic guitar scramble; the track moves with controlled restraint, letting the processed vocal and understated rhythm section carry the weight of its reflections on distance and self-reckoning.
The rollout itself reinforces the shift. Rather than a glossy standalone video, the song reached audiences first through live television and the clean official audio upload. It is a presentation that privileges sound and stage presence over cinematic narrative.
“Falling Out of Love” follows lead single “Going Shopping.” Both tracks preview Reality Awaits, due June 26. The move into longer, more spacious forms and overt digital treatment marks a quiet recalibration—one that treats heartbreak as something hazy, measured, and quietly synthetic.
Follow The Strokes
Falling Out of Love is out now via Cult/RCA. Stream the single and explore the full catalog below.
Listen: Spotify
Official: The Strokes
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ROMBO Editorial Staff
The collective voice behind ROMBO Magazine’s news, reviews, features, and cultural coverage.
