What is the new Rolling Stones album “Hackney Diamonds” worth? First listen and first impressions

How to approach the new Rolling Stones album Hackney Diamonds? Hard to take it like a rock record among others. First, because this 24th studio album is their first since the death in August 2021 of their late drummer Charlie Watts. It is also their first record of original songs in 18 years and the album A Bigger Bang published in 2005. Should we see this as their swan song, when their singer Mick Jagger has just celebrated his 80th birthday and their guitarist Keith Richards will join him on December 18 at the octogenarians’ club? Obviously, no. The Pierres are still rolling and seem in rather good shape on these twelve tracks. First listen and first impressions.

This stupid obsession with being in the loop

What strikes you first is the dynamic of the group. Two explanations for this. First, the Stones worked from December 2022 in a certain urgency, Mick Jagger having set a fairly close deadline for his accomplices, that of Valentine’s Day 2023 (in February), as he explained during from their press conference in September. The band had just finished their tour in August 2022 and the musicians were still hot and connected. Then, their faithful producer Don Was not being available, they called on Andrew Watt, 32, known for his work in the studio with Ozzy Osbourne, Dua Lipa, Miley Cyrus and Iggy Pop, and above all a big fan of the Stones ( in the studio he wore a different group t-shirt every day). His mission, according to the great organizer Mick Jagger: to make an album “proud of the Stones’ heritage but with the sound of today”.

While the Rolling Stones have long been timeless, being current, not being dated, staying current, appears to be an obsession on this album, and this is its main fault. We saw it with the first single Angry and its flashy clip which wanted to be desperately young by summoning the fashionable young actress Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria, White Lotus). Take away the images and Mick’s vocal involvement suddenly jumps out, as does the lacework of Keith and Ronnie on this opening track of the album, crushed however by a beat pachydermic and drowned in a mess shot on steroids.

Better and better

On the next two pieces, Get Close And Depending On You, we already miss the swing and subtlety of Charlie Watts. His replacement Steve Jordan, a long-time collaborator of the group on tours and with Keith’s X-Pensive Winos, hits his drums in a very marked way and does not have the grace of the deceased. For his part, Mick sings about love torment as if he were 20 years old, and why not, letting go however “I’m too young for dying, but too old to lose” (“I’m too young to die, but too old to lose”). But we don’t hear Elton John’s piano on Get Close, no more than we can distinguish the string section on Depending On You. It would have been necessary to prune, to let the songs breathe.

As we begin to mourn seriously, comes the small explosion Cock My Head Off, a frankly entertaining almost punk track which makes you want to chat nicely with a distinguished guest on bass, Paul McCartney, nevertheless so discreet that you don’t notice it. Mick also changes register, evoking “a fucking sinking ship“which he tries to”escape quickly“, on a fiery solo from Keith. From there, the album will finally blossom. Phew of relief.

With Whole Wide Worldwhose riff seems stolen from Girls by Iggy Pop, we understand above all that this album was built in part on demos written at different periods of the group – in fact, Andrew Watt initially sorted around a hundred demos which had been submitted to him. Hence the variety of this disc. Certainly, we would have liked Mick to be a bit more restrained vocally on this track, but the sauce takes off as he becomes more intimate and lets nostalgia emerge: “The streets I used to walk on are full of broken glass / And everywhere I’m looking there’s memories of the past“.

Nice nod to “Exile”

Dreamy Skiesa country shuffle title, which would not have been out of place in the masterpiece Exile On Main Street, appears as a real oasis after these noisy beginnings. Here the guitars, harmonica and Hammond organ sway gently in unison while Mick goes Dylanian on the microphone, singing loudly on purpose “I’ve got to take a break for a while“(I need to take a break). A song that we know we will listen to again with pleasure. Mess It Up, one of two tracks on which Charlie Watts (recorded in 2019) is on drums, takes control of the dance, and with its strong nod to Nile Rodgers from Chic, we have here a potential disco hit.

Live By The Sword, with Charlie Watts again on drumsticks and his former accomplice on bass Bill Wyman, back after leaving the group thirty years ago, is a good big rock illuminated by the joyful boogie woogie piano of Elton John in addition. Euphoriant. Driving Me Too Hard, a country ballad, graceful and airy, offers a pleasant break. On Tell Me StraightKeith grabs the microphone for a plaintive song, also more stripped down, where a welcome sensitivity emerges – “Is my future all in the past?” asks the guitarist.

The sound of heaven

The final stretch is an ascent towards the stars which consoles us for everything. Sweet Sounds Of Heaven, originally written by Mick alone on piano, is a 7-minute gospel that slowly builds power, and a probable homage to Charlie Watts. Lady Gaga, who came almost by accident as a studio neighbor, is formidable as a soul singer, with Merry Clayton as an obvious model (but also Lisa Fischer, the star singer of the Stones), sumptuous interpreter of Gimme Shelter in duet with Mick Jagger. With Stevie Wonder, who adds his magic touch to the keyboards (piano, Rhodes, Moog), it is undoubtedly the climax of this album, the Stones at their best, as we loved them, as we love them and as they are. ‘we will love them.

The album closes with another highly symbolic nugget: Rolling Stone Bluesa resumption of Rollin’ Stone by Muddy Waters, the song from which they took their name and which they had never covered, not even on their excellent album of blues covers Blue and Lonesome (2016). This Muddy Waters song that Mick held with a few others under his arm during his legendary meeting with Keith on a platform at Dartford station in 1961, they cover it in the most beautiful way possible: stripped down, inhabited, and even slightly dissonant at the beginning before creating the perfect union of guitar and harmonica. Pure wonder. A final point to the album or to the career of the Stones? Tssst tssst. You’re not done with the Rolling Stones. They never stop. The group worked not on the twelve songs of the album, but on around twenty. Where are the others ?

“Hackney Diamonds” by the Rolling Stones (Polydor) is released Friday October 20, 2023