The last time The Rolling Stones put out an album of latest material — 2005’s “A Larger Bang” — it was all the best way back within the pre-Taylor Swift era.
Within the interim, the pop superstar has dropped 10 studio LPs — and rocked the music world the best way the Stones once did within the Nineteen Sixties and ’70s — while the legendary British band has released exactly one: 2016’s “Blue & Lonesome,” a set of blues covers.
Although the Stones continued to tour — and play the hits that everyone comes to listen to — it actually seemed as in the event that they had given up on making original music and would ride those classics into the inevitable sunset.
But perhaps jolted by the death of founding drummer Charlie Watts in 2021, the Stones are back with — dare I say it — a bang on “Hackney Diamonds,” out on Friday.
With the band enlisting Grammy-winning producer Andrew Watt — a top studio gun for everybody from Miley Cyrus and Dua Lipa to Justin Bieber and Post Malone — you may be apprehensive that Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood are making one last desperate attempt on the pop charts.
Thankfully, that’s not the case. (And to his credit, Watt, 32, has some rock bonafides, too, having also produced Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder.)
“Hackney Diamonds” — which takes its title from the Hackney district in East London — appears like classic Stones, even when it’s lower than the gems of yesteryear. (Really, how could it’s?)
It’s a solid, satisfying victory lap in what could well be the last studio album of their storied profession.
While Jagger turned 80 in July and Richards is true behind him, hitting that milestone in December, the grizzled Glimmer Twins don’t sound as in the event that they’ve lost any of their old bite on “Indignant,” the primary single that opens the album — and one among three tracks that they co-wrote with Watt.
With Jagger’s singularly snarling vocals and the dueling guitar riffage of Richards and Wood, the remaining of “Hackney Diamonds” is likewise a nostalgic trip back to familiar territory.
“Get Close” keeps pace with the sexy strut of “Indignant,” because the perpetually frisky Jagger comes on with “I wanna get near you” while dragging out the “I” as only he can.
Meanwhile, “Whole Wide World” — one other immediately catchy track that might need to be successful in a more rocking, less ageist pop landscape — shows that the Stones are still able to delivering a rebel anthem.
“And you’re thinking that the party’s over, but it surely’s only just, only just begun,” sings Jagger, knowing full well from the experience of getting kept the party going for six a long time.
“Mess It Up” — one among two tracks featuring Watts on drums (Steve Jordan fills in on skins for the remaining) — is one other stomping standout.
However the Stones turn wistful and, yes, weary on the country-tinged “Dreamy Skies” and “Driving Me Too Hard,” with Jagger singing, “I’ve got to interrupt away from all of it,” on the previous.
And by the point they get to the penultimate track “Sweet Sounds of Heaven,” it’s almost as in the event that they are imagining joining Watts on the opposite side.
With Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder showing up as two of the guests that make “Hackney Diamonds” feel like an event record — there are also cameos from Elton John, Paul McCartney and former Stones bassist Bill Wyman — “Sweet Sounds” is seven-plus minutes of gospel-blues righteousness that takes the Stones to the sting of glory.
The last time The Rolling Stones put out an album of latest material — 2005’s “A Larger Bang” — it was all the best way back within the pre-Taylor Swift era.
Within the interim, the pop superstar has dropped 10 studio LPs — and rocked the music world the best way the Stones once did within the Nineteen Sixties and ’70s — while the legendary British band has released exactly one: 2016’s “Blue & Lonesome,” a set of blues covers.
Although the Stones continued to tour — and play the hits that everyone comes to listen to — it actually seemed as in the event that they had given up on making original music and would ride those classics into the inevitable sunset.
But perhaps jolted by the death of founding drummer Charlie Watts in 2021, the Stones are back with — dare I say it — a bang on “Hackney Diamonds,” out on Friday.
With the band enlisting Grammy-winning producer Andrew Watt — a top studio gun for everybody from Miley Cyrus and Dua Lipa to Justin Bieber and Post Malone — you may be apprehensive that Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood are making one last desperate attempt on the pop charts.
Thankfully, that’s not the case. (And to his credit, Watt, 32, has some rock bonafides, too, having also produced Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder.)
“Hackney Diamonds” — which takes its title from the Hackney district in East London — appears like classic Stones, even when it’s lower than the gems of yesteryear. (Really, how could it’s?)
It’s a solid, satisfying victory lap in what could well be the last studio album of their storied profession.
While Jagger turned 80 in July and Richards is true behind him, hitting that milestone in December, the grizzled Glimmer Twins don’t sound as in the event that they’ve lost any of their old bite on “Indignant,” the primary single that opens the album — and one among three tracks that they co-wrote with Watt.
With Jagger’s singularly snarling vocals and the dueling guitar riffage of Richards and Wood, the remaining of “Hackney Diamonds” is likewise a nostalgic trip back to familiar territory.
“Get Close” keeps pace with the sexy strut of “Indignant,” because the perpetually frisky Jagger comes on with “I wanna get near you” while dragging out the “I” as only he can.
Meanwhile, “Whole Wide World” — one other immediately catchy track that might need to be successful in a more rocking, less ageist pop landscape — shows that the Stones are still able to delivering a rebel anthem.
“And you’re thinking that the party’s over, but it surely’s only just, only just begun,” sings Jagger, knowing full well from the experience of getting kept the party going for six a long time.
“Mess It Up” — one among two tracks featuring Watts on drums (Steve Jordan fills in on skins for the remaining) — is one other stomping standout.
However the Stones turn wistful and, yes, weary on the country-tinged “Dreamy Skies” and “Driving Me Too Hard,” with Jagger singing, “I’ve got to interrupt away from all of it,” on the previous.
And by the point they get to the penultimate track “Sweet Sounds of Heaven,” it’s almost as in the event that they are imagining joining Watts on the opposite side.
With Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder showing up as two of the guests that make “Hackney Diamonds” feel like an event record — there are also cameos from Elton John, Paul McCartney and former Stones bassist Bill Wyman — “Sweet Sounds” is seven-plus minutes of gospel-blues righteousness that takes the Stones to the sting of glory.
