The New Abnormal

Did You Know?

• The cover art features the 1981 painting Bird on Money by Jean-Michel Basquiat.
• The album title was inspired by a quote from former California governor Jerry Brown in November 2018 regarding California wildfires.
• The album includes outtakes of studio chatter interspersed throughout the tracks.

Background and recording

The Strokes started working on what would become The New Abnormal in 2016, right after their Future Present Past EP came out. Nick Valensi mentioned to DIY that the band was making steady headway. The next year, Albert Hammond Sr. told a newspaper they were collaborating with Rick Rubin, but Albert Hammond Jr. clarified on Twitter that they were only sharing musical ideas, not recording. Eventually, they did record with Rubin at his Shangri-La studio in Malibu. Other sessions happened at several Los Angeles County spots—Studio City Sound, Lucy's Meat Market, Groove Masters, and Joel and Zach's Studio—plus one in Princeville, Hawaii. On May 13, 2019, the band played their first show in two years at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, debuting a new track called "The Adults Are Talking." That kicked off a so-called global comeback tour, but early gigs had problems: bad sound, rain, festival cancellations, and COVID-19 disruptions.

Composition

The New Abnormal is generally classified as an indie rock album by music critics. Matty Pywell of Gigwise described it as a mix of indie rock with new wave and electronica. James Crowley of Newsweek noted the album leans toward disco-tinged post-punk rather than the garage rock the band is known for, while Kitty Empire of The Observer called it all-out pop. Critics have also pointed out influences from 1980s pop, glam rock, and dream pop. The album keeps the dueling guitar riffs found on earlier Strokes records. Harrison Screen of Vinyl Chapters said it continues the band’s habit of giving a vintage feel a modern twist, with songs that sound straight out of the seventies. The second half is slower and more ballad-focused. Studio chatter outtakes appear throughout the record. Many lyrics are believed to reference Casablancas’ divorce from Juliet Joslin. Two tracks borrow vocal melodies from older songs: “Bad Decisions” uses the chorus from Generation X’s “Dancing with Myself,” and “Eternal Summer” uses part of the chorus from the Psychedelic Furs’ “The Ghost in You,” with both original performers receiving songwriting credits.

Promotion

The Strokes made up for a canceled June 2019 Governors Ball set with a New Year's Eve show at Brooklyn's Barclays Center, joined by Mac DeMarco, Kirin J Callinan, and Hinds. At that concert, Julian Casablancas announced a forthcoming album, joking that the band had taken the 2010s off and were now "unfrozen." They also debuted "Ode to the Mets." On February 10, 2020, the band played a Bernie Sanders rally in Durham, New Hampshire, alongside Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sunflower Bean, Cynthia Nixon, and Cornel West. There, Casablancas confirmed the album would be called The New Abnormal, out April 10, and they performed "Bad Decisions" and showed a video for "At the Door." To promote the record, they made a series of self-shot videos called "5guys talking about things they know nothing about." The band explained they originally planned an in-person pirate radio event for the album release but turned it into a video chat to connect with people. The first episode aired April 8, 2020, and the next day's episode previewed the full album. On the October 31, 2020 episode of Saturday Night Live, the band played "The Adults Are Talking" and "Bad Decisions." "The Adults Are Talking" hit alternative radio as a single on November 3, 2020.

Critical reception

At Metacritic, The New Abnormal received a weighted average score of 75 out of 100 based on 25 reviews, indicating generally favorable reviews. Most critics praised the mature lyrics and highlighted the members' return to form after a period of tension and apathy. Will Hodgkinson of The Times awarded the album five out of five stars, labeling it their second masterpiece following Is This It, and praised Rick Rubin's production and the band's sound. Entertainment Weekly gave the album an A−, noting that twenty years on from the band's first stardom, the album offers something better than reckless youth. NME awarded four stars, with Ella Kemp remarking that the album shows traces of deeper introspection and is something of a crowd-pleaser. Heather Phares of AllMusic called it full of passion, commitment, and creativity, and said it marks the first time in a while the Strokes have made truly exciting music. Tyler Clark of Consequence of Sound stated it is the freshest, most interesting album from the band in more than a decade. Rachel Aroesti of the Guardian wrote that when the band put their minds to it, that old magic is still within their grasp.