When I started my Rolling Stones deep dive in 2023, I figured I’d never have to revisit it. What were the odds that 80-year-olds Mick Jagger and Keith Richards would put out another album seven years after the career-capping Blue & Lonesome, on which they covered a selection of blues and R&B classics, just like they had on their debut 52 years earlier?

Before I’d even finished, the band announced a new album of original material, their first in nearly two decades. Hackney Diamonds didn’t come out in time for me to fit it in, but I’m remedying that now.

It turns out the band had been toying with recording new material for several years but never seriously enough to make it official. The death of drummer Charlie Watts in 2021 inspired them to finally get it done.

Some of Watts’ drumming from studio sessions in the late 2010s shows up on Hackney Diamonds, and long departed bassist Bill Wyman plays on a Stones track for the first time in 30 years, making this a fitting valedictory effort.

But Hackney Diamonds is far from a tepid swan song. This is the band’s best album in 45 years, a gloriously muscular and emotional effort that finds the band rocking with the passion they brought to their best work of the 60s and 70s.

It’s hard not to reiterate that these guys are in their early 80s, because it seems to defy both common sense and biological reality. But this isn’t a great album because it’s unlikely — it’s a great album, period. Jagger sounds as good as he ever has, maybe better. Richards’ blistering riffs hit you in the gut.

And the songs are uniformly great. You wouldn’t think that a band with as many classic songs as The Stones, 60 years into their career, would have any bangers left to give. But I could name a handful of songs on this album that I would happily slot onto a personal playlist.

Lead single ‘Angry’ is a ‘Start Me Up’ for the post-COVID era. ‘Mess it Up’ has a danceable groove so funky it was given a disco remix by a German DJ. ‘Whole Wild World’ is glorious power pop with a side of punk.

And today’s SOTD, written in the aftermath of Watts’ death, is a sweet holy blues track that became an instant Stones classic. Featuring Stevie Wonder on keyboards and a brilliant Lady Gaga sharing vocals with Jagger, it’s the album’s highest point.

“Let the old still believe that they’re young,” Jagger sings in the final chorus. Hackney Diamonds suggests he got his wish.

🎵 Part of The Rolling Stones Deep Dive 🎵
This post is part of my exploration of The Rolling Stones’ studio catalog.
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