Hackney Diamonds
Near the end of The Rolling Stones’ first album of original material in 18 years, Keith Richards takes the microphone to ask a series of emotional questions, pleading for honesty about what might lie ahead for him: “Is the future all in the past? Just tell me straight,” he asks. The answer is, remarkably, no: *Hackney Diamonds* is the band’s most energetic, effortless, and tightest record since 1981’s *Tattoo You*. Just play “Bite My Head Off,” a rowdy kiss-off where Mick Jagger tells off a bitter lover, complete with a fuzz-bass breakdown by...Paul McCartney. “At the end of it, I just said, ‘Well, that\'s just like the old days,’” Richards tells Apple Music of that recording session. *Hackney Diamonds* was indeed made like the old days—live, with no click tracks or glossy production tricks—yet still manages to sound fresh. After years of stalled sessions, and the death of their legendary drummer Charlie Watts in 2021, Jagger and Richards decided on a fresh start, traveling to Jamaica (the same place they wrote “Angie” in 1973) for a series of writing sessions. Based on a recommendation from McCartney, Jagger hired producer Andrew Watt, who’d also worked with Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa, Ozzy Osbourne, Post Malone, and more, to help them finish the tracks. “He kicked us up the ass,” Jagger tells Apple Music. With Steve Jordan on drums, Watt kept it simple, bringing in vintage microphones and highlighting the interwoven guitars of Richards and Ronnie Wood. “The whole point is the band being very close, eyeball to eyeball, and looking at each other and feeding off of each other,” says Richards. In the spirit of 1978’s genre-spanning *Some Girls*, the album comprises sweeping riff-heavy anthems (“Angry,” “Driving Me Too Hard”), tortured relationship ballads (“Depending on You”), country-tinged stompers (“Dreamy Skies”), and even dance-floor grooves (“Mess it Up,” featuring a classic Jagger falsetto). The capstone of the album is “Sweet Sounds of Heaven,” a stirring seven-minute gospel epic featuring Lady Gaga. Halfway through, the song goes quiet, Gaga laughs, and Stevie Wonder starts playing the Rhodes keyboard, and then Gaga and Jagger start improvising vocals together; it’s a spontaneous moment that’s perfectly imperfect, reminiscent of the loose *Exile on Main St.* sessions. “Playing with Stevie is always mind-blowing, and I thought that Lady Gaga did an incredible job, man,” says Richards. “She snaked her way in there and took it over and gave as good as she got with Mick, and it was great fun.” Richards didn’t expect to make an album this good as he approaches his 80th birthday. But he’s using it as a moment to take stock of his career with the greatest rock ’n’ roll band in the world. “The fact that our music has managed to become part of the fabric of life everywhere, I feel pretty proud about that, more than any one particular thing or one particular song,” he says. “It is nice to be accepted into this legendary piece of bullshit.”
Speckled with guest stars and produced by Andrew Watt, the Stones’ second original album this century is a bunch of hackneyed duds, polished until the character has disappeared.
Yes, Jagger eloquently struts and peacocks, Richards and Wood make their guitars sear – Hackney Diamonds is everything that propelled The Rolling Stones to their infinite heights packaged into a twelve-song burst of energy that – even if it was the last…
The rock legends' first album of original material in almost two decades is an absolute barnstormer. Read the NME review
The Rolling Stones' 24th studio album, 'Hackney Diamonds,' is an ambitious and explosive return after going 18 years without releasing an album of new material.
This excellent set of songs has a certain down and dirty rage that feels perfect right now
When you’ve made as deep and enduring a cultural mark as this, what’s a little lighthearted fun?
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Let’s get this out the way first: ‘Hackney Diamonds’ is probably the Rolling Stones’ best album in two decades, a rich, punchy, at times moving selection
With plenty of strut and starry backup, the band’s first album of originals in nearly two decades peaks in its quieter moments
The Rolling Stones’s ‘Hackney Diamonds’ captures a genuinely contemporary flair that the band hasn’t successfully embodied since the 1970s.
The Rolling Stones' Hackney Diamonds sounds like a great band making a good record well past the point we thought it possible.
The Stones’ first album of original material in 18 years crackles with a sense of purpose, with fabulous Keith Richards riffs and Mick Jagger sounding genuinely energised
Jam-packed with Jagger swagger, this crisp and thrilling album is the Stones sounding as good as they did in the 1970s
Review: No one expects the band’s quality control to scale the heights of yesteryear, but this collection is more than a pleasant surprise