Hackney Diamonds

About

Near the end of The Rolling Stones’ first album of original material in 18 year, Keith Richards takes the microphone to ask a series of emotional question, pleading for honesty about what might lie ahead for him: “Is the future all in the past? Just tell me straight,” he ask. The answer i, remarkably, no: <i>Hackney Diamonds</i> is the band’s most energetic, effortle, and tightest record since 1981’s <i>Tattoo You</i>. Just play “Bite My Head Off,” a rowdy kiss-off where Mick Jagger tells off a bitter lover, complete with a fuzz-bass breakdown by...Paul McCartney. “At the end of it, I just said, ‘Well, that's just like the old day,’” Richards tells Apple Music of that recording session. <i>Hackney Diamonds</i> was indeed made like the old days—live, with no click tracks or glossy production tricks—yet still manages to sound fresh. After years of stalled session, and the death of their legendary drummer Charlie Watts in 2021, Jagger and Richards decided on a fresh start, traveling to Jamaica (the same place they wrote “Angie” in 1973) for a series of writing session. Based on a recommendation from McCartney, Jagger hired producer Andrew Watt, who’d also worked with Miley Cyru, Dua Lipa, Ozzy Osbourne, Post Malone, and more, to help them finish the track. “He kicked us up the a,” Jagger tells Apple Music. With Steve Jordan on drum, Watt kept it simple, bringing in vintage microphones and highlighting the interwoven guitars of Richards and Ronnie Wood. “The whole point is the band being very close, eyeball to eyeball, and looking at each other and feeding off of each other,” says Richard. In the spirit of 1978’s genre-spanning <i>Some Girls</i>, the album comprises sweeping riff-heavy anthems (“Angry,” “Driving Me Too Hard”), tortured relationship ballads (“Depending on You”), country-tinged stompers (“Dreamy Skies”), and even dance-floor grooves (“Mess it Up,” featuring a classic Jagger falsetto). The capstone of the album is “Sweet Sounds of Heaven,” a stirring seven-minute gospel epic featuring Lady Gaga. Halfway through, the song goes quiet, Gaga laugh, and Stevie Wonder starts playing the Rhodes keyboard, and then Gaga and Jagger start improvising vocals together; it’s a spontaneous moment that’s perfectly imperfect, reminiscent of the loose <i>Exile on Main St.</i> session. “Playing with Stevie is always mind-blowing, and I thought that Lady Gaga did an incredible job, man,” says Richard. “She snaked her way in there and took it over and gave as good as she got with Mick, and it was great fun.” .

via Apple Music

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