The Rolling Stones came alive again on Friday with “Hackney Diamonds”, their first album in 18 years, featuring megastar cameos from Elton John, Lady Gaga and their old rival, Paul McCartney.
The Rolling Stones returned to life on Friday with “Hackney Diamonds”, their first album in 18 years, featuring megastar cameos from Elton John, Lady Gaga and their old rival, Paul McCartney .
Now in their seventh year working together, the British band are back with their 24th studio album.
McCartney collaborated for the first time, playing bass on the punky “Bite My Head Off”.
After their 1960s debut, there was a lot of competition between the Stones and the Beatles, but it was more marketing than reality, with John Lennon singing on the Stones’ “We Love You” in 1967.
“Paul has always been friends with us,” former Stones manager Mick Jagger, 80, told France 2 this week.
McCartney’s appearance was tragic, Keith Richards told the book Guitar Player.
“He’s almost here and there,” Richards said. “I never thought I’d play bass on a song, but when he got in there, I said, ‘Come on. You’re not going to leave until you play.’
The new Rolling Stones album “Hackney Diamonds” appears to be on sale at Sister Ray Records in London on 20 October 2023. The album, “Hackney Diamonds”, is the first since the death of drummer Charlie Watts in 2019, and the first to include original material since 2005’s “A Bigger Bang”. (Photo by Daniel LEAL / AFP)
While McCartney and Elton John’s contributions are hard to pick, Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder’s “Sweet Sounds of Heaven” is a blues-y ballad in the vein of classics like ” You Can’t Always Get What You Want”.
– ‘Hackneyed duds’ –
The reviews were more positive than the breakout.
The Guardian gave it four stars, saying: “If this is the end, they’ll go with a bang”, while the LA Times called it “spyly spry, sparked by the death riffs “.
There was really a lot of hype before the release, with some saying it was their best work since “Some Girls” in 1978.
But others were not impressed by the sleek performance from Andrew Watt, who has worked with popstars such as Justin Bieber and Dua Lipa.
“Hackney Diamonds” is old London slang for “broken glass”, but was used as a pun by Pitchfork, who called the album “a bunch of hackneyed duds, polished and lost in style. “
Nowhere near the legendary run between 1968 and 1972 saw the releases of “Beggars Banquet”, “Let It Bleed”, “Sticky Fingers” and “Exile on Main St.” in a hurry.
The title does not include new pages.
“It seems that the group has agreed that the past few years, with a legendary discography, new albums and attempts at new styles are very important,” writes Variety.
“(But) if there’s a better way to end the Rolling Stones’ 60-year recording career, it’s hard to imagine what it could be,” he added.
[GNN]
