The pioneering virtuosos to blues-based rock grit comes new material for the first time in 18 years like no other.
OVERVIEW
I know. You’re probably thinking the same thing. New Beatles yesterday, New Stones a week before. Just how far back did we go in that time machine? Both stalwart sixties bands show that music can be timeless – irrespective of what era we happen to find ourselves in. It’s quite remarkable – and truly outshines the current trending artists of today – to see that even after these all years, legacy shines. With Hackney Diamonds, it outsold the rest of the UK Top 5 combined. Rest assured, the numbers don’t just speak for the band’s name. It also speaks for the music itself. Despite not making any new music since mid-noughties, Jagger and co seemingly pick up where they left off all those years ago with a staggering studio album with yearning blues swoons and classical rock ‘n’ roll riff rifling that has been trademarked by the Stones for years.
Now, the dangerous alternative to the Merseybeat in the British Invasion have swooned up new material since 2005 in the form of Hackney Diamonds. With a load of promotional offloading overseas came the first taster of Angry at the start of the month. Before too long, the whole album was at our feet.
There’s not much pushback from avid rock fans – old and new – to decide The Rolling Stones as the World’s Greatest Rock & Roll Band. It was already pretty much decided in the late ’60s, so everything done now is pretty much for the love of it all. The protocol was simple. Jagger as the protypical showman – a macho showmanship dripped in campy irony – and Richards/Jones providing the template for the sinewy blues rhythm. I don’t need to tell you just how prominent the band was – and is. Tattoo You, Some Girls, Aftermath, Sticky Fingers. The sheer volume of masterstrokes bristled from their chiseled musical etiquette was nothing short of brilliant.
SONG-TO-SONG
Over the course of their career, the band never truly abandoned blues altogether and 2023’s Hackney Diamonds is no different. The album itself doesn’t try to be anything it’s not either – dabble in a new stylistic choice of Stones. That’s because it doesn’t need to.
Stupendous opener of Angry is nothing short of simple rock ‘n’ roll but is feverishly catchy, rambunctious and strictly Stones. Get Close is a bluesy-ballad rife of yearning that harks remarkably back to Worried About You / Some Girls; with an equally impressive sound design. Depending On You is another beautiful rock soon-to-be-classic as Jagger soars, “Now she’s giving my loving to somebody new / I invented the game but I lost like a fool / Now I’m too young for dying and too old to lose / ‘Cause I was depending on you.” You can forgive the slight hint of autotune, as Mick is pushing on 81 years old after all.
Lest we forget to mention the roll-call of additions we have to this album, too. Fellow Beatle Paul McCartney features as backup vocals on ferocious Bite My Head Off while Livy By The Sword is a feast for the ears as both Keith Richards and Elton John weave within one another with honky-tonk anarchy from both piano and rhythm guitar.
A supergroup collaboration is also present on the might of Sweet Sounds of Heaven with glam-queen Lady Gaga offering her soulful vocals making it a truly celebratory occasion for the bands’ return. /You can’t have a light without a shadow…/ It’s a stand-out moment on the album; a remarkable 7-minute coming-together for the magic of music. We can’t forget Steve Wonder is on this record, too. Both organ and piano being whipped into shape via a jazzy solo accompaniment.
Hackney Diamonds is not only an ode to OG bassist Bill Wyman (his first contribution to a Stones album since ’89) and to Charlie Watts (the album contains two song sessions that Watts had with the band), but is also an ode to the greatest musicians of our generation – and quite possibly, many generations before and to come.
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