The Rolling Stones
Hackney Diamonds
GEFFEN
Not counting their curt covers album Blue & Lonesome from 2016, The Rolling Stones haven’t made vital, raw, and contemporary-sounding music—that which they’ve concocted for the harrowing new Hackney Diamonds—since 1981’s Tattoo You. To paraphrase Frank Sinatra in Pal Joey, that’s a long time between strong drinks.
Part of the immense power, the confidence in pulling off diverse material (when was the last time the Stones attempted funky gospel à la the winding seven-plus minutes of “Sweet Sounds of Heaven,” with or without Lady Gaga?), and diamond-cutting charm of their new album comes from the repeated call of the rock icons’ foundational songwriting core, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (along with their consigliere Ron Wood) to compose and record to a strict deadline. Certainly, too, there was an urgency to pay unsentimental tribute to late drummer/Stones centerpiece Charlie Watts with his usual cracking rhythms on the disco-ish “Mess It Up” and the hand-clapping “Live by the Sword.” That said, Steve Jordan’s drumming on the rest of Hackney Diamonds maintains the clarity of Watts at his finest, while pulling off the big beats (aided by Andrew Watt’s Technicolor production) with his own musky funk on overdrive.
Another part of Diamonds’ great immensity (and/or immense greatness) surely stems from the addition of classic rock conjurer Watt (no relation to Watts) behind the boards. Ask Iggy Pop, Eddie Vedder, Ozzy Osbourne, or Post Malone about Watt’s force and focus when it comes to producing abrasive yet mainstream alt-everything and they’ll surely crow. Add in Watt’s melodic uplifts as co-writer on opening tracks “Angry,” “Get Close,” and “Depending on You” and you’re hearing some of the springiest, catchiest Stones bridges to date that speak to both sides’ signatures.
To all this, the tales told within these 11 new songs (and its closing Muddy Waters cover “Rolling Stone Blues”) speak to age and rage in a fashion that keeps them away from post-millennial blather or elder laments. They’re neither too old nor too cold on blistering aggro-rockers “Bite My Head Off” and “Live by the Sword”—their best, spikiest tracks of the 21st century featuring, respectively, Paul McCartney and Bill Wyman on bass—as they move forward without the tender rumination of their aging peers.
With that, vocalists Jagger and Richards (on the fiery “Tell Me Straight”) sound epically committed, clearly intentional, and passionate in their vocals. When Jagger rants through the countrified twang of “Depending on You,” he lifts the baleful ballad to another place—and perhaps provides a mission statement for the marvel that is Hackney Diamonds—when he sings, “I’m too young for dying and too old to lose.” As elsewhere on Hackney Diamonds, The Rolling Stones sound as if they have no fucks to give.
