The Strokes "Lonely in the Future": Meaning and the Fantano Diss
The Strokes' "Lonely in the Future" finds Julian Casablancas looking at modern pop culture and insisting that he has seen it all before.
The Weeknd, "YOLO", Harry Styles' "As It Was" and music critic Anthony Fantano all get name-checked. But beneath the shots at recycled ideas is a more complicated question about what it means to always believe you were there first.
"Lonely in the Future" is track three on Reality Awaits, The Strokes' nine-track seventh studio album. Released July 24, 2026 through Cult Records and RCA Records, the Rick Rubin-produced record is the band's first album since The New Abnormal in 2020.
What is "Lonely in the Future" by The Strokes about?
There is no confirmed explanation from The Strokes giving "Lonely in the Future" one official meaning.
But the lyrics repeatedly return to the same frustration: things presented as new already feel old to Casablancas.
"I heard that years ago when I was a kid"
Yesterday, childhood and the future keep colliding. One strong reading is that Casablancas is talking about originality and cultural recycling. He watches sounds, phrases and ideas return while positioning himself as someone who got there earlier.
Yet the song gradually complicates that attitude. Being first gives the narrator confidence, but it also leaves him isolated and constantly complaining that everyone else is late.
"Lonely in the Future" - The official audio
Why does he mention The Weeknd, YOLO and "As It Was"?
The first verse races through pop culture references, at one point even mixing up John Legend and Josh Groban for another quick joke.
Casablancas mentions The Weeknd's outfit, drops "YOLO, you only live once" and refers to "As It Was".
The YOLO line has an obvious connection to The Strokes' own history. The band released "You Only Live Once" on First Impressions of Earth in 2006, years before YOLO became a mainstream catchphrase.
"As It Was" appears to point toward Harry Styles' 2022 hit. But without Casablancas explaining the lyric himself, it would be too strong to claim that he is making a specific plagiarism accusation.
Another line gives a clearer sense of his attitude:
"All good, we all steal, baby"
That makes the criticism less straightforward. Casablancas mocks recycled ideas while admitting that borrowing is part of making art.
The target seems to be less stealing itself than the endless cycle of old ideas returning as the next new thing.
What does "It's lonely in the future" mean?
The title turns that frustration into something more personal.
"Maybe you'll catch up sooner / Rather than later, baby / It's lonely in the future"
One strong interpretation is that the "future" represents being ahead of everyone else.
The narrator believes he can see patterns before other people recognize them. "Maybe you'll catch up" sounds smug, but the next line reveals the cost of that supposed advantage: isolation.
Being ahead is lonely when nobody has caught up yet.
That makes the title both a boast and a complaint. Casablancas presents the narrator as someone convinced that he sees where culture is going, while also sounding resigned to waiting for everyone else to arrive.
Later, Casablancas leaves the final repetition of the title phrase unfinished. It can be heard as reinforcing that unresolved feeling, although without an explanation from Casablancas, its significance remains open to interpretation.
Why does Julian Casablancas call out Anthony Fantano?
The song becomes much less ambiguous when Casablancas names music critic Anthony Fantano directly.
"Fantano, word for word, when I was a kid"
He follows the name-check by telling Fantano to "stick to the technical" and questioning his ability to recognize art.
There was already history between them. Fantano had given Like All Before You, the 2024 album by Casablancas' other band The Voidz, a "NOT GOOD" review, and Casablancas had publicly criticized the reviewer before "Lonely in the Future" arrived.
Fantano initially responded to the new name-check with "Welp" on X. He later discussed the diss at greater length while making clear that The Strokes remained one of his favorite bands of the 2000s.
So while some of the song's pop references leave room for interpretation, Fantano is an unmistakable target.
The bridge changes the tone of the attack
Then Casablancas does something more interesting than simply adding another name to the list.
"Join me as I pray for the grace to be merciful"
He follows it by asking for help not to "lay waste", because it is not their fault.
That moment keeps "Lonely in the Future" from being a simple diss track.
After spending much of the song mocking people who seem late to ideas he already knows, Casablancas briefly questions whether they deserve his anger at all.
The criticism remains. But so does an awareness that constantly declaring yourself ahead of everybody else can become its own trap.
The final joke turns back on Casablancas
The final chorus pushes the song's confused timeline to an absurd extreme.
Casablancas imagines himself a hundred thousand days in the future and still saying that he did something "yesterday when I was a kid".
That joke quietly turns the song back on its narrator.
He has spent the track noticing repetition everywhere: familiar ideas, familiar sounds, familiar criticism. Yet in the distant future, he imagines himself repeating the same I already did that argument too.
That is what makes "Lonely in the Future" more interesting than a list of celebrity disses. Casablancas sounds convinced that culture keeps catching up with ideas he encountered long ago, but the song also recognizes the isolation and absurdity of always needing to be the person who got there first.
FAQ
Is "Lonely in the Future" a diss track?
Partly. Anthony Fantano is directly targeted, and several other pop culture figures and ideas are referenced. But the bridge complicates the attack by having Casablancas ask for the "grace to be merciful".
What did Anthony Fantano say about "Lonely in the Future"?
Fantano initially responded to the name-check with "Welp" on X. He later discussed it at greater length and said The Strokes remained one of his favorite bands of the 2000s.
Why does the song mention YOLO?
The reference connects naturally to The Strokes' own "You Only Live Once", released in 2006, years before YOLO became a widely used pop culture catchphrase.
Is the "As It Was" line about Harry Styles?
It appears to reference Harry Styles' 2022 song "As It Was". Casablancas has not publicly explained the line, so treating it as a specific plagiarism accusation would go beyond what is confirmed.
Who produced "Lonely in the Future"?
The song appears on Reality Awaits, the Rick Rubin-produced seventh studio album by The Strokes. It is track three on the nine-song record.
Further Reading