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Tuesday afternoon in New York, The Rolling Stones gathered friends, media and fellow artists to preview their upcoming 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues.
Before the three went on stage, the host Conan O’Brien deadpanned that maybe, finally, this is the album the band will “make after decades of secrecy”. The audience, which included Leonardo DiCaprio, the director Baz Luhrmann and the actor Odessa A’zion, laughed gratefully.
Seventy years into their career and with over 250m albums sold, the band needs no further reinforcement of their legacy. But recent years have seen the group – now the third part after the drummer Charlie Watts death in 2021 – they were also creatively inspired. Hackney Diamonds, their 2023 album, was thanks and the Guardian’s Alexis Petridis as a return to form that “shakes with purpose”.
On Foreign Tongues, the band reunited with Hackney Diamonds producer Andrew Watt (Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber), and the execution of special guests including Steve Winwood, Paul McCartneyRobert Smith of the Cure and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
At the New York event, Mick Jagger he said that the 14 songs of Malilimi 14 will be made in many different genres: “The important thing about this song is that, the Stones are a rock band that also has the ability to sing dance, music or dance music.
“When it doesn’t work, that’s when we bring in a judge,” he said Keith Richardspointing to Watt who laughed with him. “They chase us up.”
Jagger described the new Ringing Hollow as a “country song” inspired by Richards’ lifelong love of Hank Williams, while the beautiful Delilah draws from the delta blues. The singer also teased Hit Me in the Head, a “real punk rocker” with parts written by Watts before his death.
On stage, the three-piece was cool and edgy, and Jagger was happy to play while O’Brien joked that the singer’s striped blazer was “from Willy Wonka’s place”.
“It’s kicking,” O’Brien said of the new album, adding that it’s reminiscent of the group’s 1972 album. Driven to Main Stand that he listened to the song “25 times” since he received it a few days ago. “There’s a vibration, an urgency to it.”
That’s because the album was recorded in a month, Jagger said: “Having only four weeks made us do things very quickly. We’re happy most of the time in the studio, but I’m very focused – you have to make (a song) in five minutes.”
When asked what he did to make his vocals sound better, Jagger lamented: “I was doing a lot of drugs in 1968…
“Riffs, you can’t force them,” Richards said. “They’ll come to you.” Meanwhile, the guitar Ronnie Wood he compared playing with a fellow guitarist to “the old way of weaving”.
The cover art for Foreign Tongues is by New York artist Nathaniel Mary Quinn, who described the painting as a “combination” of the group. “I call him Mr Ugly,” laughed Jagger. “I am no computer generated” he added, to applause from the audience.
The band also reflected on the loss of former drummer Watts with warmth and humor. “Charlie passed the baton to Steve (Jordan),” said Wood, of the Stones’ new drummer. Richards put it bluntly: “When Charlie hit the bucket, he said: ‘Steve’s your man.'”
For more than 60 years, the band has called for change. “You don’t just want to think about what you’ve done before. We put it together, we love doing it, and there’s always something new,” Richards said.
