/REVIEW/ At a moment when perhaps no one expected it from them, the aged British rockers recorded one of the best albums of their career. Percussive, melodic, superbly played and sung. With guests such as Lady Gaga, Elton John and Paul McCartney. Members of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones on one record? We live in a time of miracles.
We’ve gotten used to them being here with us forever. Keith Richards rolls a joint over our grave Mick Jagger he circles the modest mound of dirt thirty times and then dances over it. Ronnie Wood only occasionally replaces a snuff-eaten septum with a new one, but otherwise the Rolling Stones roll on and on.
Current studio album Hackney Diamonds is proof of that.
The stones keep rolling. The Rolling Stones’ wild ride has been going on for 60 years
Even in their 80s, the Stones, the British rock act Makropulos, find themselves at the top of the music charts again. And that in at least eighteen countries. It took a week for their fresh line-up – only the second this century and the first since the death of drummer Charlie Watts – to become the third best-selling record of the year. But the artistic success of the entire project is more important. Critics are cheering, giving the record full stars and praising Jagger’s youthful vocals.
The other gentlemen look like they’re barely climbing, but they’re actually playing like in the old days. Imaginative, striking, with an enviable feeling.
Hackney DiamondsSource: Polydor
Five minutes to twelve
Since 2005, when the Rolling Stones still released the very strong album A Bigger Bang with Watts, the next item in their discography has been awaited like mercy. Many believed that each subsequent record could be a swan song. In 2016, Jagger et al. his listeners with a trip to the paradise of blues music on the Blue & Lonesome CD.
Even then, they wanted to make their own songs, but Mick’s creative block and Keith’s arthritis made it impossible. And so they decided that it would be easier to go out on the adopted standards, which they whistled through during a hectic three-day jam.
The Rolling Stones – Living in a Ghost Town:
Source: Youtube
It was a great jam on the stock and brought the Stones positive reviews. But it wasn’t a regular regular album. Frankly, few expected the rock dinosaurs in the third millennium to do better than nostalgic tour full of over-the-top hits. Occasional singles Doom and Gloom, One More Shot and Living in a Ghost Town (the last of which was inspired by the emptied world during the pandemic) could not satisfy the hunger of millions of true fans.
Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has died. He was 80 years old
For covid however, something happened to the rather untidy bunch. Forced isolation paradoxically cemented her. Hopefully everyone has finally realized their mortality. Some studio work took place in 2020 and 2021, but the aimlessness of the pandemic period did not allow the musicians to concentrate properly. Departure Charlie Watts to drumming heaven shortly after his eighties in the summer of 2021 paralyzed the rest of the band. On the table was the question of whether it even made sense to continue. In the end, the Stones went on a string, during which Steve Jordan, recommended by him, sat in Watts’s place, also the long-time drummer of Richards’ side project X-Pensive Winos.
McCartney’s vigor
With the end of the tour, Mick, Keith and Ronnie made it clear that the songs in progress, including two with Watts’ participation, were worth finishing out of piety for their deceased friend. On recommendation Paul McCartney they contacted the American producer Andrew Watt, known for his collaborations with the bands Pearl Jam and Maroon 5, but also with Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber. Watt, an active musician himself, refreshed and enriched the Stones’ old sound with a modern perspective.
In contrast, Mick Jagger decided to try singing in a Dylan style. That means: with emphasis on the text, don’t mess with it too much, shoot the words like bullets from a revolver. The result is singing with tremendous impact and intensity that nails you to the wall and won’t let go.
The Rolling Stones – Bite My Head Off:
Source: Youtube
Twelve never-before-heard songs were created in various constellations in London, Los Angeles and New York (Hendrix’s famous Electric Lady studio). Every now and then new and old friends joined. Bill Wyman, the Stones’ original bassist, at the time on hiatus, stopped by to reminisce in one of the songs, which also features Charlie Watts’ drums. The former lineup became a reality for a moment. Similarly shocking is the participation of ex-Beatle McCartney in the burner Bite My Head Off. Sir Paul rubs the bass with the vigor of a twenty-five-year-old, happy to have someone other than himself responsible for the band’s success for once.
A killer with clubs
Elton John at the piano and Stevie Wonder behind the keyboards they represent an ideal combination of funky rhythms with a softer pop-rock style. But the real star of the Hackney Diamonds album remains Steve Jordan. Not just for the ease with which he stepped into Charlie’s shoes. Mainly he is a killer drummer. Where Watts was straightforwardly austere and traditional in a good way, Jordan offers a full arsenal of firepower.
The stones keep rolling. The Rolling Stones’ wild ride has been going on for 60 years
Lady Gaga’s presence on the semi-improvised gospel ballad Sweet Sounds Of Heaven shows just how much it benefits Sir Jagger to be booed by another superstar. On its own, the song wouldn’t have created that much of a fuss. But the flirty duet between the two – including Mick’s parrot screeches – makes her a polished gem. Nowadays, in addition, with quite a lot of up-to-date text.
The Rolling Stones – Angry:
Source: Youtube
This is precisely what makes the Hackney Diamonds record a winner among the professional and lay public. Not that they were goddamn brilliant compositions. But they are delivered with the admirable precision of seasoned rockers, concisely and at the same time emotionally, without the slightest delay or waste of worthless ornaments. This is big beat like wine. The essence of everything we imagine under that term.
Throw in Jagger’s high-spirited mood, expressed on the pilot single Angry, and we have a hot candidate for the biggest dude of the year.
