THE STROKES hugely anticipated comeback single is called ‘12:51’, guitarist ALBERT HAMMOND JR has exclusively told NME.COM.

The track, the first to be lifted from sessions for the band’s second album with producer Gordon Raphael, will be released on October 6, with their currently untitled new alum to follow two weeks later on October 20.

The song, which had a working title of ‘Supernova’, is one of only eleven finished tracks The Strokes recorded with Raphael. The band’s perfectionist approach to recording meant that if a song wasn’t as good as the rest, it would be scrapped altogether.

"We just had the eleven songs," an excited Albert told NME.COM. "In the rehearsal room if we played one song that wasn’t as good as the last one, we’d drop it. It didn’t become a song. We’re picky like that. That way we know that the songs that we go into the studio with are all good enough and it’s down to us to make them work. We just took in eleven dandies."

For Albert Hammond Jr’s exclusive NME interview, where he talks about life in the studio, the band’s trip to Japan and dealing with the pressures of writing and recording the follow-up to ‘Is This It’, see this week’s NME, out now.