The Rolling Stones: Hackney Diamonds
Verdict: Back with a Bang
The supporting cast includes Elton John and Paul McCartney, but it is the energetic artistry of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood — combined age 235 — that steals the thunder on the first album of new Stones songs in 18 years.
They call themselves ‘the greatest rock and roll band in the world’, and this is a late-career masterpiece.
They made the 12-track album — its title is Cockney slang for shattered glass — with a new collaborator, Andrew Watt, and the New Yorker, 33, does an excellent job. He adds modern touches, but respects familiar strengths.
Despite the star-studded supporting cast, it is Mick Jagger , Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood that steal the thunder on the first album of new Stones songs in 18 years
They call themselves ‘the greatest rock and roll band in the world’, and Hackney Diamonds is a late-career masterpiece.
Recent single Angry is a weak link, a Start Me Up pastiche with a by-numbers feel, but the other rock numbers frame the band at their best. Charlie Watts, who died in 2021, added distinctive drums to two songs in his final sessions.
Get Close recalls 1972’s Exile On Main Street, and McCartney supplies a distorted bass solo on Bite My Head Off.
But it’s the big ballads that give this overdue return its five-star rating. Jagger is fully engaged on the lovely, country-ish Depending On You. Richards sings lead on Tell Me Straight.
Penultimate track Sweet Sounds Of Heaven, a duet between Jagger and Lady Gaga, is a tour de force — an epic that evokes 1969’s You Can’t Always Get What You Want.
If this turns out to be the last time — and I wouldn’t bet on that — the Stones will go out in style.
- A full version of this review was first published in the Mail on Tuesday, September 7.
