The Strokes performed “Falling Out of Love” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, bringing a new song from their forthcoming album Reality Awaits to late-night television ahead of the record’s June 26 release, according to Billboard.
The appearance places the band’s next chapter squarely in the present tense. Rather than leaning on the familiar comfort of catalog recognition, The Strokes used the broadcast moment to foreground new material, giving viewers a direct entry point into Reality Awaits before the full album arrives.
For a band with a long-established identity, a late-night performance can do more than simply announce that new music exists. It frames the tone of a rollout. It gives a song a visual setting. It also allows an audience to encounter a track as a performance first, before it becomes part of the larger album conversation.
“Falling Out of Love” now becomes one of the clearest public signals of what listeners can expect as The Strokes move toward Reality Awaits. The song’s placement on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert gives it a prominent platform during the lead-up period, turning a single television slot into a marker for the album cycle.
Details beyond the performance remain limited in the report, but the essentials are enough to make the moment notable: a new Strokes song, a major late-night stage, and a forthcoming album with a confirmed release date. In the compressed rhythm of modern music news, that combination carries weight without needing additional spectacle.
The timing is also central. With Reality Awaits due June 26, the Colbert appearance arrives close enough to the release to feel connected to the album’s final approach. It is not a distant tease or a vague promise of activity. It is a current, concrete performance tied to a project that is already on the calendar.
The band also has a 2026 tour planned, extending the scope of this rollout beyond the album release itself. While the performance of “Falling Out of Love” functions as the immediate news item, the planned tour points to a longer arc for the new material. The song is not arriving in isolation; it is part of a broader period of activity for The Strokes.
That balance between immediacy and anticipation is what gives the performance its editorial pull. On one hand, the event is simple: The Strokes played a new song on a late-night show. On the other, it sharpens the outline of what is coming next, from Reality Awaits in June to the band’s scheduled return to the road in 2026.
For fans following the album cycle, “Falling Out of Love” now stands as a key reference point. It is the song The Strokes chose to present in a high-visibility television setting at this stage of the rollout, and that alone makes it part of the story around Reality Awaits.
As the release date approaches, the Colbert performance gives the album campaign a clear public-facing moment. The Strokes are not simply announcing a forthcoming record; they are putting the music in front of an audience now. For a new album titled Reality Awaits, the message is direct enough: the next era is no longer abstract. It is already being performed.
