ALBUM The Rolling Stones do it, sensationally, again.
The Rolling Stones
Foreign languages
Polydor/Universal
COAT To The Rolling Stones three years ago got out “Hackney diamonds”their first studio album in 18 years, felt like a minor miracle. It was definitely their best since at least 1981’s “Tattoo you” and also a record that, with the help of the young American star producer Andrew Watt managed to take the classic Stones sound into the 20s.
Even then there was talk that they had material for another album and now it is coming “Foreign languages”actually an equally compelling collection of songs and again with Watt at the helm.
Just like on “Hackney diamonds”, the idea seems to have been to give something to everyone who has ever fallen for this ultimate definition of a British rock band.
Four of the 14 tracks come from the “Hackney diamonds” sessions, the rest were recorded during a creative month in the London studio Metropolis.
Mick Jagger said in connection with “Hackney diamonds” that it felt necessary to deliver if there was to be any point in releasing anything new. Before “Foreign tongues”, he said that the process goes faster now, when he, Keith Richards and Ron Wood write separately and it’s less about jamming something in the studio.
Some Stones connoisseurs believe that it is another way of saying that it is primarily Jagger who comes up with the songs, and that in Watt he has once again found a younger force capable of bringing out the best in him.
Regardless, it once again sounds astonishingly inspired.
The Stones open, as a statement, with the heavy garage blues “Rough and twisted”which they released somewhat semi-secretly under the name The Cockroaches this spring, and follows up with the cleaner official first single “In the stars”.
Then the album continues with copious amounts of references to various Stones eras.
“Jealous lover” is a 70s singing soul ballad with Steve Winwood on Fender Rhodes and Jagger high up in the vocal registers.
In “Mr Charm” they have an inspired guitar-twisting seduction rock about there being more values in life than money. Possibly slightly ironic from such a financially minded rock director as Jagger. Perhaps even more unexpectedly, in the same song, he highlights himself as more fun company than that “mad mogul Mr Musk”but refreshing none the less.
The rare contemporary commentator Jagger actually becomes even more concrete in the country sob “Ringing hollow”, about the America that the Stones have built a career on romanticizing but is now painfully hard to recognize.
The previously so rewritten guest game of Robert Smith from The Cure doesn’t leave much of a mark on the record, he apparently plays some keyboards in a highly un-gothic boogie smoker called “Divine intervention”.
Larger footprints do Paul McCartneywhich, just like on the last album, jumps in on bass in a song. “Covered in you” is the urban bittersweet pop Stones in a song that sounds like a possible mature radio hit. Incidentally, they have two more potent ones in “Never gonna lose you” and “Side effects”.
And of course it’s nice to get a last (?) greeting from Charlie Wattsespecially when he lays his distinguished groove over something as new wave-leaning as “Hit me in the head”.
Richards’ obligatory vocal contribution, the ballad “Some of us”, is said to be a further development of a song that was already written for the reviled 80s album “Dirty work”, when Jagger and Richards barely spoke to each other and the Stones were close to breaking up for good. It feels like the album’s least inalienable moment. But with the song’s history, it’s still heartening to hear Jagger help out with the chorus.
Most surprising is of course Amy Winehouse-the cover “You know I’m no good”. She certainly sang The Temptations “Ain’t too proud to beg” with Jagger on stage 19 years ago, and of course the lyrics fit pretty perfectly with what this band has always stood for, but it still says something that rock’s oldest men present a student at the school they were with and built that kind of recognition. The song is also excellent in company, sonically similar to Jagger’s “Slow horses” vignette “Strange Game” as it is.
And just like Jagger and Richards rounded off the last album with Muddy Waters “Rolling stone blues” they also end this with a cover to show where they come from. Chuck Berry’s “Beautiful Delilah” they already interpreted in career dawn but the slick acoustic take that the 82-year-old version of The Glimmer Twins delivers here is both rawer and sharper.
How many fixes and tricks Watt used to make the Stones shine like this can possibly be speculated – anyone who has seen the video to “In the stars” know that they are not afraid to let the technology peel off a few decades – and those who had problems with his compressed and slightly chromed sound on “Hackney diamnonds” are unlikely to love this either.
But I’m not complaining. Watt and the Stones have made a record that is fun to listen to through and through, with jagged songwriting from Jagger and not infrequently purely childish guitars from Richards and Wood.
There is no lofty ambition here to create an artistic masterpiece in the fall of one’s career. The Rolling Stones, as they have always wanted to, just want to remind the world which is the best rock’n’roll band in the world one more time. And unlike at several much more anxious times in their careers, they now let it be completely clear exactly what it is that has made them what they are.
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BONUS
BEST TRACKS: “Back in your life”. Another 70s-singing soul ballad that, with its musty brass and crackling Ron Wood solo, rises to six minutes. Could have been a solid concert finale for any other band.
DID YOU KNOW THAT… In addition to Jagger, Richards, Wood and the aforementioned guests, faithful collaborators such as the bassist play Darryl Jonesthe keyboardist Matt Clifford and the drummer Steve Jordan on the disc. Also Bruno Mars, Benmont Tench from Tom Petty’s The Hearbreakers and Chad Smith from Red Hot Chili Peppers available on small corners.
ALSO LISTEN TO: Previous album “Hackney diamonds”, 1976 “Black and blue”of 1978 “Some girls”1980 year “Emotional rescue”Amy Winehouse’s “Back to black” and the collection “The very best of Chuck Berry”. As well as the new Paul McCartney album “The boys of Dungeon Lane”also helmed by Andrew Watt.
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