The Strokes have shared a music video for ‘Lonely in the Future’, which sees them enlist the Spitting Image puppets and take aim at Elon Musk and billionaire class.
The new visuals for the ‘Reality Awaits’ track take a similar approach to the iconic ‘Land Of Confusion’ music video from Genesis – reimagining the band members as puppets and criticising the social issues around them.
Julian Casablancas and co. rejoined forces with director Warren Fu for the visuals, having previously worked with him on videos for ‘You Only Live Once’, ‘Taken for a Fool’ and ‘Under Cover of Darkness’, as well as some of the singer’s solo material.
Together, Fu and The Strokes also work alongside Splitting Image – the company behind the hit show of the same name – to reimagine the band as puppets, as well as famous faces including Greta Thunberg, Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch, Jeff Bezos and more.
Taking aim at the billionaire class, the video depicts Musk and Jeff Bezos kissing, batting off Mark Zuckerberg with a taser, and later coming together to celebrate “the end of the world”.
Murdoch is depicted as changing media headlines to push his own ideologies, and other moments in the video include Greta Thunberg being imprisoned, and music critic Anthony Fantano calling Bach as “not good” and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey “immensely boring”. The latter is a reference to the feud between Casablancas and Fantano, with the latter previously criticising Casablancas’ side project The Voidz as being “not good”, and also giving ‘Reality Awaits’ a 3/10 review and calling it their “worst album”.
Other famous faces depicted include Lou Reed – who Casablancas has repeatedly cited as a big source of inspiration for The Strokes – and producer Rick Rubin, who worked with the band on their latest record.
The Strokes themselves also appear in the video in puppet-form, with nods to their famous music videos including ‘Last Nite’, ‘You Only Live Once’, ‘Reptilia’, as well as their iconic 2002 live concert for the MTV2 ‘$2 Bill series’.
The new video arrives shortly after the indie icons performed both ‘Lonely In The Future’ and ‘Going Shopping’ on Saturday Night Live – with Walton Goggins making a surprise appearance for the latter, having also starred in the music video.
While the ‘Lonely In The Future’ visuals made a nod to Genesis’ ‘Land Of Confusion’, those for ‘Going Shopping’ paid homage to Paul Simon‘s ‘You Can Call Me Al’, with Goggins taking the role originally played by Chevy Chase in the 1986 footage.
NME awarded ‘Reality Awaits’ four stars, praising the band’s willingness to experiment and concluding that they sounded “more alive and locked in than they have in years”. Since it dropped, the band have wrapped up their first full UK and Ireland headline tour in more than two decades, including two nights at London’s O2 Arena and shows in Newcastle, Manchester and Dublin.
Their London performance received a five-star review from NME, which concluded: “In the 25 years since their first UK show, The Strokes have had their ups and downs, and their moments when it felt like they’d rather be doing anything but playing together. Right now, though, they’re firmly on a high – doing things their way and sounding as vital as they ever have.”
Guitarist Nick Valensi has been absent from the tour, having announced a temporary break from the band in May, with Longwave’s Steve Schiltz filling in. Last month, the guitarist made a surprise appearance with Duran Duran in Paris, and Casablancas has stated that he will be returning to the stage with his bandmates “soon”.