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The Rolling Stones – Hackney Diamonds

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What does it sound like?:

The Stones are back! Hackney Diamonds struts like a Stone, riffs like a Stone and rocks like a Stone. It actually follows the blueprint of their imperial phase. There is the ancient Blues cover (Rolling Stone Blues), the one with the stretched-out musical interlude (Sweet Sounds Of Heaven), the country song (Dreamy Skies), the social verité (Whole Wide World), the Keef lead vocal (Tell Me Straight) and the real jaw-dropper (Depending On You). Only the smutty rocker is missing, unless you accept the swearing in Bite My Head Off, but there are plenty of riffs to compensate. There has been no musical progression since the mid seventies but who wants groundbreaking experimentation from The Rolling Stones?

Most of it was recorded straight after the 60th anniversary tour and the band are a well-oiled machine. It’s the same band that recorded The Bigger Bang in 2005, apart from Steve Jordan. Rolling Stones guitars have a tendency to being sloppy but, here, they are sharp and focussed. Keef has adapted his playing to his state of arthritis and has come up with a raft of fiery riffs. The Keef/Ronnie interweave and solos are lean and purposeful. The piano, such a key instrument for all of the very best Stones’ albums, is played by three different musicians: Matt Clifford in the Mr Dependable Ian Stewart role, Elton John a decorative Nicky Hopkins and Stevie Wonder brings the Billy Preston Gospel and Soul. The ghost of Can’t You Hear Me Knocking Bobby Keys is present in the sax solo on Get Close, Lady Gaga channels Merry Clayton for Sweet Sounds Of Heaven and there is a feint to Tumbling Dice at the start of Driving Me Out. Charlie’s kick drum is a very welcome presence on a couple of tracks. Mess It Up verges on INXS Pop/Rock but Live By The Sword is a rollicking old Stone convention with Bill Wyman and Elton John barrelling along the groove. The rhythm section is sublime, each guitarist gets a solo and Mick is spitting feathers. It illustrates how good this album is. If Live By The Sword had been released before Angry, devoted fans would have melted with joy. However, effectively a simple list song, there are a number of better tracks on Hackney Diamonds. Charlie’s anointed replacement, Steve Jordan, sits bolt upright on the front edge of his drum stool, doing a bang-up job, and Darryl Jones’s bass is deliciously thick and beefy. In all the excitement, it’s easy to overlook Paul McCartney, fuzz-bassing on the punk-thrash of Bite My Head Off.

As great as the guitars are, the real star is Mick. He sounds totally rejuvenated, like a man half his age, snapping, snarling and whirling like a dervish. He is fully engaged with these songs, relishing every last morsel. His vow of incoherence is over. His diction is clear in a London accent, with only a few vowels bent beyond all recognition. Lyrically, there is no storm threatening, no crossfire hurricane, no head full of snow. He takes the option of focussing on the here and now, beset by relationship problems, paying dearly for all those years of depravity when he carelessly used women as he pleased. He spends five of the twelve tracks bickering with angry women, a sixth trying to escape and a seventh being dumped. Just read the song titles, Angry, Bite My Head Off, Mess It Up, Live By The Sword, Driving Me Too Hard, and you can tell Mick ain’t getting laid (much). No wonder he’s irascible and horny across most of the album. Dreamy Skies, all pedal-steel and brushed snare, is a safe haven longing for the peace of the great outdoors and the familiarity of Hank Williams on the radio. The song is so soporific, Mick can barely rouse a trace of the old comedy accent. Given their advanced age and long history of hedonistically dancing with Mr D, you’d expect something portentous, but there is very little hand-wringing, end-of-life philosophising. There are some regrets. Get Close depicts a troubled Jagger wandering the streets, reflecting ruefully on his past while paying for a current day tryst. Whole Wide World, featuring a couple of belligerent guitar solos, revisits their old stomping ground to reminisce about their rebellious youth. It’s a reminder that The Stones’ unique selling point was always their attitude. They aren’t exactly growing old disgracefully but they still behave as though they are in a gang with the whole world against them, despite all those packed stadiums and bulging bank accounts.

There are two major epics that could genuinely occupy a spot on an imperial album. The first is a tender ballad, Depending On You, one of three co-writes with young producer Andrew Watt, who should take a great deal of credit for stimulating their creative juices. It’s the kind of beautifully ambivalent ballad they perfected on Goats Head Soup. The woman has found someone new, its emotional ups and downs accentuated by sensitive, respectful guitars and swept along by an undercurrent of strings. Mick declares himself too young to die and too old to lose. Sweet Sounds Of Heaven is astonishing. A theatrical Gospel-Blues showdown between two extravagant vocalists egged on by a dazzling band performance and a kitchen-sink production. It’s a real showstopper.

Keef has his moment at the mike, his voice mellow and mournful, singing a feeble wisp of a tune as he endures yet another break-up. “Is my future all in the past?” he asks tentatively, glancing at his expensive watch. To finish, they go back to the very beginning to the Blues number that gave them their name when they first formed the band. Left to themselves on a soundstage miked up to sound as if it’s 1928, Keef plays his battered acoustic, Mick his harmonica and they duet on Muddy Waters’ brooding, minor-hued Rolling Stone Blues.

Hackney Diamonds is far better than any of us could have imagined. It certainly withstands far more than six listens. Of course, these are not The Stones of their heyday. In fact, they are at their weakest when they try to be but there is nobody that sounds like The Stones in 2023. Vibrant, virile Rock music is much needed. The Rolling Stones, once again, show us how it’s done.

What does it all *mean*?

This album is not about sealing a legacy, it is a continuation of a defiant career, riding roughshod over standard norms. Most of these tracks should work well live, sit comfortably within their greatest hits set and still excite the audience. Apparently, there are plenty more tracks in the can. Perhaps, there will be a superdeluxe version next year with bonus tracks and a live gig. You can buy the Blu-ray now.

Hackney Diamonds provides enough energy to extend their already remarkable longevity for some years to come.

Goes well with…

A record player or a car. Although the art work is tawdry and, at 48 minutes, it’s two tracks too long, Hackney Diamonds is designed to be experienced on vinyl. Failing that, singalong at the top of your voice as you put pedal to the metal.

Release Date:

20th October 2023

Might suit people who like…

Rock Music

41

Comments

  2. Thanks for the insightful review. For a long time I thought a greatest hits was enough Stones for me, but lately I’ve started getting into their albums, and I’ll have to add this to my growing Stones collection.

  4. I have been anxious to hear this for weeks. Given all the comments already made and the two tracks I have already heard it is a definite purchase.
    Nothing hits the spot as much as a fired up Rolling Stones. Great review.

    • There’s a terrific interview with Keef in the latest issue of Guitar Player, and an equally fascinating one with Andrew Watt, the producer. I get it via Readly, but you can buy the issue for a modest amount of dollarage if sufficiently interested.

  6. Thanks Tigs – all the reviews I have read are saying much the same thing, but yours is a lot more forensic.

    I am curious about your statement that ‘ Hackney Diamonds is designed to be experienced on vinyl’ though. Why?

  7. Great review: cheers. It also reinforces my opinion that ten tracks on an album is all you ever need (ducks for cover as 763 classic 12-track albums are lobbed).

    • I can agree about overlong albums, but I find it funny when we have first Stones album in 18 years with original material and then some complain it is too long! There won’t be many more Stones albums …

      Btw the Japanese version (at least on CD) has a 13th track, Living in a Ghost Town

        • Japanese bonus tracks are a quirk of what’s called the saihan law. It’s similar to the old Net Book Agreement, and means that every Japanese release has a price printed on the sleeve, below which it is illegal to sell the item. Most Japanese music retailers import a load of their stock, which often retails cheaper than the saihan price. And so Japanese record companies are very keen on adding exclusive bonus tracks to their editions of international albums, in order to encourage people to buy their version, and not the cheaper one from Sony Australia sat next to it in the rack.

        • ABB a double on vinyl as was Voodoo Lounge. Helps like that as you feel less obligated to listen to the whole thing in one sitting. I agree there is a stronger shorter album in there though.

  8. Ears are a funny thing. Just had my first listen to the celestially good Sweet Sounds of Heaven. Sounds pretty good until the comedy vocal comes in. I won’t be listening again.

    • Thanks for this counterpoint to all the lavish praise going on. (Just to be clear, I have no clear idea what I think of the bits & pieces album I have heard yet – at the moment somewhere in between astonishment and nah).

      I particularly liked
      “This is exactly the sort of album you gift a middle-age, mid-divorce dad who’s flailing for direction as he speeds around town in his post-split sports car, cranking the Stones’ anti-romance rants. A petulant ex for 60 years now, Mick Jagger is so pouty about being put out here it scans as absolute arrogance. Sneering opener “Angry” is the theme song for the pops who reminds everyone how hard he’s worked, how little thanks he gets, and how he’s also, inexplicably, “still taking the pills” and “off to Brazil.””

        • Clearly, Hackney Diamonds belongs to the genre Dad Rock. However, I tested it with two 23 year olds and they enjoyed it.

          I also informed them that the perfect Christmas present for the well-into-middle-aged man – A Barcelona shirt with The Stones’ tongue logo. I’m large, thank you very much.

          • I suspect both the reviews I have read that avoid most cliches and don’t fawn to PR perceptions, Tiggs’ and the Pitchfork one, say exactly the same things, all bar the perspective views from. I just have to decide if I’m a 66 year old bloke with too many records, or a hip young gunslinger about town. Tough call!

    • That review is closer to my opinion than the review at the top of the page.

      This is not a very good album.

      …. Yet I had a fun time with it. It’s a fun parody album like flight of the concords going RAWK.

  10. The Stones played a (short) gig in a club in NYC last night. Capacity 650! Obviously not legendary enough to stop New Yorkers yapping to each other

  11. Two listens in here at Château Wrongness. So far it’s like listening to, an admittedly very good, tribute band. Great fun but, c’mon, it’s not exactly relevant is it? And Jagger’s vocals too often cascade into pastiche. And as for the “Paul, let’s hear some bass”…pass that bucket, please.

  12. Was doing a road trip with a mate of mine , former Stones fan , a bassist and general musician himself and a very hard marker. Described Angry as simply awful. So I put on Sweet Sounds Of Heaven, Awful too, clearly co written with the producer Jordan’s drumming robotic etc

    So it aint unanimous. I didn’t like Angry, I do like Heaven. Looking forward to the rest.

  13. Reviewers have said this rejuvenation is down to Mick and his astonishing energy. It is astonishing and I am sure his drive and vitality kept the whole thing bouncing along. I’d say his vocals are not the best thing about this though. It seems churlish when he is 80 but the his mannerisms are a bit of an irritation at times. The band, Jagger aside, are superb. The guitars sound great and the rhythm section and piano are excellent. The songs are catchy. Would have been good with more slow, bluesy numbers. Sweet Sounds of Heaven is exceptional, a great song for performing live, like reappropriating Primal Scream. Both the initially released two songs sound better as part of the album whole.

  14. After a few listens I am increasingly conscious, in a bad way, of Steve Jordan’s drumming. Those hard snare hits are so upfront. Funny you’d think after all this time with Keef there’d be more roll in it. But it’s a real rock sound. Maybe it’s Andrew Watts’ doing.

  15. I’m coming to love this album, largely due to the fact that my 6 year old daughter has become obsessed with it since she shared my first listen in the car on Friday. She is particularly enamoured of Get Close, Whole Wide World, Bite My Head Off and Mess It Up. None of which are going to trouble the upper echelons of anyone’s all time top Stones tunes any time soon but which all have plenty to offer and are lots of fun to bop around the kitchen in your pyjamas to (her, not me). BMYO is notably potty mouthed, which hasn’t really landed for her yet; she’s more taken aback that Paul (the man who sings ‘Hey La’ [Hello Goodbye]) is on it and that they are all even older than her grandparents.

    It’s the most immediate Stones album that I’ve heard contemporaneously to its release. Astonishing when one considers their age and a jolly old laugh. Basically, a good primer for a 6 year old. Wait until she hears the real gold.

    They really miss Charlie, though. Different band without him. Not surprising of course but it’s notable.

  16. I found myself agreeing with David Hepworth (shock horror!) on the WIYE podcast. That is, I have listened to this album once and really don’t feel the need to listen to it again. Whereas way back in the day, when I were a lad, when I heard Honky Tonk Women, and Jumping Jack Flash etc, I just wanted to listen to them over and over again. And I still like listening to them.

    Also, the sound is just too – I dunno, perfect. there’s no space. It doesn’t sound like a band playing live. I know it is, but there’s no air.

    What I DO disagree with DH about is “what the Stones should be writing songs about”. History? Napoleon? FFS! This is why journalists should NEVER make “creative” suggestions. They’re not creators, they’re observers.

    • Heppy’s suggestion was a bit weird, but I sort of know where he’s coming from in that they could be writing about something more interesting than Jagger’s love life.

      I’m conflicted about this album – it clearly has some of their best songs for ages, but…but…it somehow doesn’t quite work for me as a whole.

      As for that cover ‘art’…Jeez.

    • That’s nothing to do with the music, it’s simply age. When did you last hear a record that you just had to hear over and over again? Some individual tracks perhaps, but a whole LP?

      • That’s true, I haven’t heard a record I want to play over and over again for decades. Which makes that new Stones album nothing special. I truly wish I wanted to listen to it again!

        OTOH if Randy Newman ever releases another album I absolutely know I’ll have it on repeat.

        And I have played the last Bonnie Raitt album a few times. And I even gave Macca’s last a few goes as well.

  17. Was chatting with Mojo/ Concheroo about how processed the sound was, shades of the Quietus objections.

    He makes the comment that given Keef’s distaste for modem sounds and the need for “roots” you’d think they would gave had a more natural and open sound.

    Quibbles about Jordan aside, the band is really cooking and I think a different approach would have been to the album’s benefit.

  18. A 2 CD edition is coming mid December with the original album paired with the 7 song live set they performed in New York. Perhaps some kind of record for issuing a new version of an album!

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