Two years later Hackney Diamonds (2023), the album that interrupted an eighteen-year creative silence, the Rolling Stones return to the record market with Foreign Tonguesthe twenty-fifth studio album of their career.
Announced by Mick Jagger as a work without genre barriers, capable of ranging from orthodox rock to country ballads, up to disco and pop deviations, the long-playing actually fits into the most classic tradition of the structurally indestructible British band.
Produced again by Andrew Watt, the album capitalizes on the live recording formula, capturing the energy of a reinvigorated band that doesn't seem to want to file for retirement.
The passing of time and the death of drummer Charlie Watts, which occurred five years ago, seems to have accelerated the creative urgency of the two surviving founders, Jagger and Keith Richards, intent on consolidating their catalog with unreleased material rather than with pure catalog operations.
The opening of the album is entrusted to the up-tempo of Rough and Twistedan explicit homage to the Chicago blues that marked the band's beginnings in the early Sixties. The recovery of one's personal mythology continues in In the Starswhere Jagger reconnects to the atmospheres of Jumping Jack Flashtranslating artistic longevity into a vocal performance of notable energetic impact.
The real novelty of Foreign Tongues however, lies in its thematic and political positioning, an element that distances the album from pure nostalgic celebration.
In fact, several tracks contain explicit criticisms of the contemporary sociopolitical situation, with particular reference to the United States. In the honky-tonk ballad Ringing HollowJagger sings about the instability of Western democracies (“Lady Liberty doesn't look good when she has a tear in her dress”), while the fast pace of Covered in You attacks autocratic regimes. The polemical peak is reached in the almost punk passages of Mr. Charma scathing indictment against the tendencies of technological tycoons and, specifically, against Elon Musk.
At eighty-two years old, Jagger shows remarkable vocal form and interpretative clarity, alternating texts with a dystopian edge (as in the funky Divine Intervention) to moments of pure entertainment, among which stands out a harmonica cover of You Know I'm No Good by Amy Winehouse.
The album is also characterized by a dense network of high-profile collaborations and cameos. If Steve Winwood's organ guarantees a solid link with the rock scene of the Sixties, the tracklist hosts contributions from Paul McCartney, Robert Smith (The Cure) and Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), as well as a rhythm section that even sees Bruno Mars on the tambourine in one song. From a philological point of view, the most relevant operation is the recovery of the drum tracks recorded by Charlie Watts in 2021 for the song Hit Me in the Heada rock with a strong fatalistic impact.
To balance the more energetic component of the album, there are more intimate episodes. Back in Your Life stands out for a guitar solo by Ronnie Wood, while Keith Richards signs one of his most vulnerable interpretations in Some of Us.
Without affecting the historical value of the production of the late sixties or of the milestones of the band “Foreign Tongues” it stands, together with the previous chapter of 2023, as the best long-distance work published by the Rolling Stones in recent decades, confirming the relevance of the band in the contemporary rock panorama.
It's the Rolling Stones doing Rolling Stones things, certainly all we need.
SCORE: 8.00
VOTES OF OTHERS
The Telegraph (UK) – Rating 10.00
Rolling Stone (USA) – Rating 8.00
The Independent (UK) – Rating 8.00
Uncut – Rating 8.00
The Guardian – Rating 8.00
New Musical Express (NME) – Rating 7.00
Mojo – Rating 6.00 THE VOTES OF OTHERS
TO LISTEN NOW
Jealous Lover – Mr. Charm – Back in Your Life
TO BE SKIPPED IMMEDIATELY
Nothing pure Rolling sound from start to finish
TRACKLIST
1. Rough And Twisted
2. In The Stars
3. Jealous Lover
4. Mr. Charm
5. Divine Intervention
6. Ringing Hollow
7. Never Wanna Lose You
8. Hit Me In The Head
9. You Know I'm No Good
10. Some Of Us
11. Covered In You
12. Side Effects
13. Back In Your Life
14. Beautiful Delilah
