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“Jarring” – Has Autotune Killed The Strokes’ Vibe?

Justin Hawkins Rides Again | July 4, 2026



I like The Strokes. I like Julian’s distinctive voice, so I was looking forward to reviewing Going Shopping, now that a new video has been released ahead of their album, Reality Awaits, on July 24th. However, I was left with a question: Why the autotune? It doesn’t need it. Do you agree?

To watch the whole video staring Walton Goggins: https://youtu.be/4u3iI1WuU0k?si=jD6VaIpMTrHO42GG

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#reaction #musicreview #thestrokes

Written by Justin Hawkins Rides Again

Comments

This post currently has 30 comments.

  1. @jimmyguitar9873

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    In the age of AI The Strokes should have been the example and answer! It maybe a stylistic choice but i'm sick of listening to overproduced over processed shite. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.

  2. @inttrovertedmonk851

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    T Pain can actually sing, he used auto-tune as a gimmick, he hates that people don't know how to actually use auto-tune. He talked about how he sat down with the guy who created auto tune and even that man said everyone uses it incorrectly.

  3. @jaymolyneux5250

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    Hi – I feel like I should say I recently put ‘falling out of love’ on in the car through an iphone se1 – into one of the bluetooth cigarette devices, so playing through the Ford KA (old car) ‘s speakers, and it sounded incredible.

    In fact – it was very hard to tell it had been auto tuned. Maybe you need a lower bitrate or pre 2008 hatchback to really get A feel of the song, especially if you don’t have modern software to mess around with it.

    Or carry on as you are, might help if you’re upset though.

  4. @joelnagle2214

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    JARA is hilarious 😊 mash up of the strokes and Paul Simon's love it.

    There goes my future wife in the little red jumpsuit And daddy when you call me you can caall meeeoow, call meow 😂

  5. @shalita310

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    I've seen talk about why he likes it,
    He says it's about he melodies he can come up with autotune,
    It seems he likes the "hammer on" effects it has, which is hard to get with natural voice.

  6. @eweng903

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    Rick James clearly super-freaks again in the video, well done. Casablancas’s Auto-Tune vocal effect is not quite so unheard of in rock as you might think: the glamorous Electric Light Orchestra used conspicuous vocoder on Mr. Blue Sky, after all. It may simply be there to give the song a funky monkey edge. Only a week to The Darkness at Knebworth. A tricky one for support bands to pull off: the scale of Iron Maiden’s stage set, the vast Maiden crowd and playing in full sunshine will all be challenging. But whatever goes down at Eddfest, I can still believe in a thing called love.

  7. @7revor_W

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    Man I'm on a surprise gig tomorrow and I spent many hours of today learning You Can Call Me Al; first time even hearing it. Absolutely bizarre coincidence that you shouted it out here. Anyway, love the tune tbh. I'm down with some of the autotune though I wish it was more tasteful.

  8. @RANDALL_MARS

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    I think it’s in there to piss a certain type of person off.
    The song and the vocal melody are catchy as f***.
    The more you listen, the more your brain actually auto tunes the auto tune out….seriously.

  9. @TopsyWildwood

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    This simply sounds bad. I think they had a “we will be contrarian” moment and embrace modern techniques.. We’re not retro!!! They forgot to pay attention to the fact that music should ultimately sound good? Why would anyone listen to this? Garbage. Come on Justin… This sucks.

  10. @sah-win

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    Woof! It’s feckin horrible. If he was a real bad ass and couldn’t be bothered to sing in tune, then he should’ve left it as is. Own your shite and I’ll respect it.

  11. @tracyopera5401

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    Maybe it was meant to be an "effect" for this song in this particular? Just like (examples) singing into a megaphone, phone, etc? This song has been on the radio a lot where I live.

  12. @tonyschannel7438

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    So I don't know if you know who Anthony Vincent is, although i'd be surprised if you didn't he has a very popular channel called which used to be called "10 Seconds Songs", but is now just called "Anthony Vincent" and it has over 3 millions subs. Anyway he makes videos about music and he recently made a video about "The Darkness" you should check it out if you haven't already.

  13. @ruffsaidthecat

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    He's using the autotune as an effect, not to disguise singing wrong notes. It's the same reason Daft Punk, Kanye West and Cher used it. There's something cool and innovative about using tools like that in a way they weren't originally designed for. Complaining about using that effect would be like complaining about using a chorus effect on vocals or reverb effect on vocals. I think their new song really benefits from it, I think it's cool. Julian himself said some melodies that he finds mediocre seem to come alive from the effect, I can't see how that's a bad thing.

  14. @_alifeallmine_

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    It’s that Cher ‘Believe’ horrendous bullsh*t, why, just why?! I have loathed this style since the very first moment I ever heard it, novelty garbage for casual music listeners. Please do a palette cleanser for this like Tigercub’s new single ‘Fall In Fall Out’, sure it might sound a little old school Muse-ish, but that’s even better considering they’ve sh*t the bed lately too.

  15. @pureamoursoul

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    The autotune doesn't quite work well with this song. The song "Instant Crush" by Daft Punk ft. Julian Casablancas is where they had used autotune on Julian's voice and it actually sounded good (fit the sound of Daftpunk). T Pain is a pretty dam good singer, but used autotune to "stand out" in the music scene back in the 2000s which ultimately got him noticed and achieved some huge hits.

  16. @holotape

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    It’s not only autotune, it’s bad autotune. If it was done just for pitch correction, an engineer would have made it sound better. This was a choice.

  17. @wademosher

    July 4, 2026 at 10:45 am

    Jesus H Tap Dancing Christ, why is this still a thing? It's fucking revolting and soul killing.
    If you absolutely MUST fix a few stray notes, at least use Melodyne and only then, sparingly. Especially for bands/singers like this.

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