Rolling Stones get their mojo back in thrilling fashion on Hackney Diamonds

Eighteen years after their last original album, can Mick Jagger and Richards roll back the years? You bet they can

Rolling Stones members Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood. Photo: Mark Seliger

Hackney Diamonds by the Rolling Stones

thumbnail: Rolling Stones members Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood. Photo: Mark Seliger
thumbnail: Hackney Diamonds by the Rolling Stones
John Meagher

Eighteen years is a long time in the life of any band and that’s the period that has elapsed since the Rolling Stones last released an album of original material. They weren’t always as keen to eschew the studio, of course. In the first 18 years of their existence, the band released 16 long-players, a number that includes some of the greatest albums of all time.

In recent years, few expected the vintage partnership of Mick Jagger (80) and Keith Richards (79) to write another album. So when the existence of Hackney Diamonds was announced, there was jubilation. Could they roll back the years? You bet they could.

Hackney Diamonds by the Rolling Stones

Their mojo has been awakened spectacularly and 32-year-old New York producer Andrew Watt — who has helped to give a new lease of life to elder statesmen such as Iggy Pop and Paul McCartney — should take much of the credit. The album — named, apparently, after East End slang for broken glass after a burglary — is unmistakably that of the Stones and there’s something thrilling in the first five seconds of opener Angry when you hear Richards’ distinctive guitar and Jagger’s singular voice.

That was the album’s lead single, one of two co-written by Watt, and is among the weaker tracks here. The second single, Sweet Sounds of Heaven, is genuinely great — a gospel-tinged wonder featuring Lady Gaga’s spirited vocals and Stevie Wonder’s piano. It could have appeared on one of their classic early 1970s albums and felt right at home.

Live By the Sword is another track cut from special cloth. It’s one of two songs that feature the drumming of Charlie Watts — his contribution was recorded shortly before his death in 2021 — and while it may not be Jagger’s finest lyrical moment, all the Stones’ rudiments are there, including a Richards riff for the ages. Elsewhere, veteran sticksman Steve Jordan is on percussion.

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The album has no shortage of guests. Paul McCartney plays a deliciously distorted bass line on Bite My Head Off and Elton John adds piano to Get Close. Founder member Bill Wyman appears for the first time on a Stones album in 30 years.

It closes with a marvellous, bare-boned acoustic cover of Muddy Waters’ Rolling Stone Blues, his 1950 song that gave the band its name. It suggests finality and yet there may be another album in the offing, such was the bounty of material that emerged from these recording sessions.

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