The last toast of the Rolling Stones: here is their new album

One of the flagships of the British Invasion, the one that changed the course of pop music when it landed on American soil nearly 60 years ago, is beginning its final journey. Even if you never know with the Rolling Stones, everything indicates that this twenty-fourth album released today represents the swan song of their satanic majesties, at least in the studio.

Hackney Diamonds is written as a farewell that stylistically reviews much of the band’s work, with nods to the discography of Beggars’ Banquet (1968), when Mick Jagger and Keith Richards took full control, leaving behind the instrumental flourishes and extravagances of Brian Jones. It’s direct attack rock, quarrelsome, original and shamelessly copied by a few – standing in the Aerosmith room and Jon Spencer blues explosion – but never equaled. This album bears witness to that.

The Stones have been accumulating material for years, they have released a few singles, but nothing that convinced them to create an album with very great possibilities of embodying the end point. The songs were good but lacked greatness. Lackluster sessions with historic producer Don Was, as well as the pandemic and the death of Charlie Watts in 2021, became serious obstacles. It seemed that Blue and lonelythe 2016 blues covers album, will remain his last work.

Paul McCartney recommended that they work with Andrew Watt, one of the producers at the time. At just 32 years old, he has specialized in recording with classic rock names like Iggy Pop and Ozzy Osbourne, although he has gained notoriety with pop artists like Camila Cabello and Justin Bieber. The missing spark was lit and they released much of the album in just three weeks.

Between guests and recovered songs, the Rolling Stones managed to bring together almost the entire original lineup with the presence of bassist Bill Wyman for the first time in 30 years, in one of the two songs where the drums are by Charlie Watts ; they embrace their old friends the Beatles thanks to the participation of Paul McCartney on bass; they make peace with Elton John, who once called Keith Richards an “arthritic monkey”, present with full piano on a few songs; Stevie Wonder contributes piano and keyboards, and Lady Gaga shifts into African-American vocals on the second single. Sweet sounds of heaven.

The first single angry, Revealed on September 6, the corking of this last bottle with the Stone label begins. In the context of the rest of the songs, a decent prologue: a half where Steve Jordan makes his debut on drums respecting the canons of Charlie Watts; the guitar dynamic between Keith Richards and Ron Wood, each acting separately and together, and the incredibly whole voice of Mick Jagger at 80 years old. His level of interpretation is spectacular – energetic and versatile – in each title.

Bite my head It unleashes a hardened rock kick and urgent rhythm with Paul McCartney applying an effect to harden the bass, while Jagger sings like he’s half a century younger. Live by the sword, where Wyman and Watts meet on the rhythmic basis, it sounds like a spin-off of It’s only rock’n’roll (but I like it), while Elton John triggers the piano. Features a lysergic bridge for a short, intense guitar battle.

The passion for country and blues, the unshakable foundations of the Stones, is accompanied by the beautiful and nostalgic dream skies, with crisp slide sentences and quotes from the legendary Hank Williams. Charlie Watts’ classic punch pushes hard to spoil everythingas Driving too hard lets himself be carried away by the resplendent sound of Wood and Richards’ guitars.

The last third of Hackney Diamonds marks the end of the cycle for the Rolling Stones. The voice of Keith Richards, in surprising form, led tell me honestly with Jagger linked in the chorus. This is one of the best songs on the album; thoughtful, melancholic, with twilight chords, where the guitarist who has repeatedly escaped death wonders if “my future is in the past”.

The grandiloquent Sweet sounds of heaven We cook for over seven minutes with elements of gospel and blues, a platter served to Lady Gaga to reiterate that she is one of the great voices of pop.

The closing with the version of rolling stones blues, recorded by Muddy Waters in 1950 and which had versions by Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa, comes full circle in the history of the group, which specialized in covers in its early days. The piece contains the origin of the philosophy of this institution, fuel of six decades. “The rolling stone gathers no moss,” goes one of his lines. The Rolling Stones have made this a credo even today. Hackney Diamonds is a classic rock dynamo.