Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: fantano via Youtube, Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The Strokes’ new album, Reality Awaits, is kind of like the darker, more deranged sibling of their Grammy-winning 2020 output, The New Abnormal. We won’t be arguing its merits, but the third song is intended as a victory lap for front man Julian Casablancas: “Lonely Is the Future” takes a few shivs at artists such as the Weeknd, Josh Groban, and Harry Styles, who, as a swaggering Casablancas reckons, don’t come close to matching his legacy because “I did that years ago when I was a kid.” He also dedicates a full verse to music critic Anthony Fantano, of whom he believes should stick to reviewing the technical side of music because he “would not recognize art in any age.” Fantano, who recently crowned himself the most impactful music critic of the past decade, of course has a few things to say about it. Posting a nine-minute response to the diss track on his YouTube page, Fantano reiterated that the Strokes are “one of my favorite bands of the 2000s,” and he was confused by the venom in Casablancas’s pen. “This is quite a bit different. Not even funny or silly or tongue in cheek in any way whatsoever,” he explained. “Really just a bitter diss. And one that I find very funny because it’s one of the few ‘beefs’ I have going on in the music industry, though I really don’t. This is not a beef. If anything, it’s one-sided at best.”
Fantano believes that the crux of their tartare comes from his negative review of Casablancas’s side project, the Voidz; the band’s third album, 2024’s Like All Before You, utilized AI artwork, a decision that Fantano torched in a video. “It’s very ironic to be making the claim that I can’t recognize art when I see it when you clearly think nothing of presenting your music with AI art,” he continued. “It’s a silly and confusing situation for sure. And part of my reason for wanting to make this video is to come on here and communicate to you guys that this is all as weird to me as it is to you.” Confusion aside, though, Fantano said that his review came from a place of being a longtime fan. “I’m not here to actively bully Julian and the band. If anything, I’m a little bit of an apologist,” he added. “The claim that I completely lack the ability to assess or recognize art is just patently untrue, especially from someone in Julian’s position. What was I doing with every positive review I’ve given to you or the Strokes over the years?” Who knows when Casablancas will respond to this, or if he’ll utilize Auto-Tune if he does.
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