The Rolling Stones
Hackney Diamonds

From Rolling Stones to Strolling Diamonds, that is, the crafting, after a full eighteen years, of a new album of unreleased tracks, complete with a final treat to recall "where it all began."

Hackney Diamonds is the epitome of Rolling Stones art, a blend of well-used and interconnected ingredients. From rock to blues, from romantic pop to a choral and gospel finale.

Someone has already described it as the Sticky Fingers of the new millennium, praising it as the best Jagger and Co. album in the past fifty years. Others have taken a more grounded approach, highlighting the connection to the past while also noting the novelty that these two septuagenarians and an octogenarian have managed to achieve in this work, aided by guest stars such as Paul McCartney on bass in Bite my head off, Elton John on piano in Get close and Live by the sword, Steve Wonder and Lady Gaga, respectively on piano and vocals in the "biggest and brightest diamond," namely Sweet sounds of Heaven, seven minutes and twenty seconds of grand chorality and effect. In the fifth minute of this track, when it seems to be fading, all the vigor reignites after a brief "behind the scenes" segment. And speaking of Heaven, in this album, which makes it precious not only musically but also humanly, there are also the last contributions, dated 2019, from the late drummer Charlie Watts, precisely in Mess it up and Live by the sword.

The Stones, who last recorded an album in 2016 (but Blue & Lonesome was a cover album, and earned them a Grammy Award), had in fact never stopped composing, but they needed someone able to translate their ideas into a sound that's both new and recognizable. They found this in producer Andrew Watt, a Grammy Award winner in 2021, who has a history of collaborations with the greats of yesterday and today. Joining the team was Steve Jordan, on drums clearly replacing Charlie Watts.

Focusing more specifically on the tracks, Angry seems to immediately wink at chart-topping pop-rock, but the atmosphere quickly becomes classy with Get close, where, besides the previously mentioned Elton John's piano, both sax and trumpet make an appearance. Depending on you recalls the romantic pop of the late millennium, but moving to the next track, Bite my head off, you're hit with the rock energy embodied by the drum and bass that have distinguished the world's longest-running band for over sixty years.

In the next two songs, this pop/rock-blues dynamic persists. Indeed, Whole Wide World, both for the electric piano and the guitar riffs, harkens back to the atmosphere of about twenty-five years ago. But the unexpected country-blues of Dreamy Skies transports us musically across the ocean. Delving deeper into the album, we realize that the genre alternation is no accident but rather well-crafted. And if Mess it up evokes radio-friendly pop atmospheres, hard rock with an engaging solo in Live by the sword soon follows, before evening things out with Driving me too hard. The reflective ballad mood is maintained in almost three minutes of Tell me straight, with Keith Richards' voice front and center. All this precedes the grand finale, and this time the adjective is not overused. Sweet sounds of Heaven is a seven-minute and twenty-second journey where Lady Gaga's voice harmonizes well with Mick Jagger's, and a majestic finale sees the horns re-emerge to declare the triumph of the track and the entire album, which closes with great class with a cover of Muddy Waters' 1961 Rolling Stone Blues, which inspired Jagger and company to find their name that still resonates sixty years later. The Stones have proven themselves true "jewelers of the four-minute mark" by spicing up the collection of songs with two shorter diamonds and one longer one.

My score, for the career, is 5, although objectively, the album might not warrant the highest rating.