The Strokes / The New Abnormal / 2020
The Adults Are Talking
wistful, guarded, quietly exasperated
The opening track of The New Abnormal frames a generational and interpersonal standoff as one continuous scene of miscommunication, where intimacy and public judgment blur together. Julian Casablancas sings from inside a relationship that feels surveilled and moralized, using the title's generational dismissal as a shorthand for feeling watched and misunderstood.
generational conflict surveillance and judgment romantic ambivalence self-sabotage disillusionment with maturity
Who's speaking
A first-person narrator addresses a lover or object of desire directly, while a vague collective 'they' hovers as judge and audience; the narrator seems both defensive and self-aware about his own contradictions, making him sympathetic but unreliable.
What happens
The song begins with outside voices criticizing the addressee, which the narrator turns into a shared intimacy — she says what he's dreaming, so he asks her to repeat it. This quickly shifts into a portrait of a fraught, guilt-laden relationship full of double standards and unspoken comparisons to someone else. The narrator diagnoses the other person's hypocrisy but circles back to his own confusion and refusal to commit to any single desire. By the end, the song abandons plot entirely, dissolving into repeated resignation and a self-referential moment where the band seems to step outside the song, joking about starting over in the same key.
How it's built
Verse-chorus form with a recurring accusatory chorus that returns nearly verbatim, reinforcing the stuck, circular nature of the argument. The song fractures near the end into a spoken/count-off outro that breaks the fourth wall, turning a personal drama into a self-conscious performance.
Section by section
Opening verses
The song opens with secondhand gossip about the addressee's intelligence and refinement, which the narrator reframes as evidence that she voices thoughts he can't articulate himself. This sets up desire as a kind of ventriloquism — attraction rooted in recognition rather than difference.'m dreaming'.
Craft
- repetition/anaphora
- The instruction to repeat words functions as both intimacy and control, and its return later underscores how the couple's conflict is stuck in a loop rather than progressing.
- direct address with shifting antagonist
- The 'they' who judge the addressee early in the song quietly becomes the narrator's own accusatory voice in the chorus, blurring outside judgment with internal blame.
- metatextual outro
- The countdown and comment about returning to the old key breaks narrative illusion, framing the song itself as something imperfect that the band is willing to restart, mirroring the romantic indecision described in the lyrics.
Reading it
The most persuasive reading treats the song as being about the impossibility of being fully understood or fully honest, whether by outside critics or a romantic partner — the 'adults' of the title stand in for any authority claiming moral clarity the narrator doesn't feel he possesses. An alternative reading focuses more narrowly on infidelity or a love triangle, given the references to thinking of one person while with another, though the lyrics stay too elliptical to confirm a literal narrative.
Context
The New Adnormal (2020) marked a stylistic pivot for The Strokes toward more polished, synth-inflected production (co-produced by Rick Rubin), and this opening track has been read by some critics as a statement of purpose — reintroducing the band with self-awareness about its own legacy and public perception. I'm not certain of specific biographical details behind the lyrics themselves.
Listen for
- the shift in tone between the accusatory chorus and the more resigned bridge
- the way the outro's spoken count-off pulls back the curtain on the song's construction
- the repeated 'not tonight' refrain as a moment of drained resolve
- how the melody keeps circling rather than resolving, mirroring the lyrical stalemate
About The Strokes
The Strokes are an American rock band from New York City, New York, that formed in 1998. The band is composed of lead singer and primary songwriter Julian Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr., bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and drummer Fabrizio Moretti.
1998 - present / United States
Full biography and catalogue