Double miracle. The first: The Rolling Stones will release a new album on Friday, their first since 2005 and the death of Charlie Watts in 2021. The second: Hackney Diamonds is their best since Tattoo You in 1981.
Posted at 7:18 p.m.
During the recording of “Hackney Diamonds,” 32-year-old director Andrew Watt showed up every day at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles wearing a T-shirt that corresponded to a different era in The Rolling Stones’ history and from his vast collection of Vintage clothing came from that we envy.
The fashionable anecdote largely sums up the approach behind this first album of new material in 18 years, in which each song seems crafted to represent a specific period in the rich discography – often exhilarating, sometimes ridiculous – of the group’s finest, “English Not” conjures up the Beatles.
The burning saxophone of Get Close, that lustfully syncopated rhythm? It’s a bit as if the tracks left over from Can’t You Hear Me Knocking (on 1971’s Sticky Fingers) have been exhumed. The country lament Dreamy Skies, accompanied by slide guitar and a hat tip to Hank Williams? Place it anywhere on the B-side of the second disc of Exile on Main St. (1972) and newcomers will see nothing but fire. The pleading, beautifully crafted Keith from Tell Me Straight? It’s a bit the same as that of Thru and Thru, a rare memorable moment from Voodoo Lounge (1994).
Excerpt from Angry by the Rolling Stones
Andrew Watt is known for his ability to bring rock musicians of the good era (Iggy Pop, Ozzy Osbourne) back to the sound of their fruitful and turbulent years. However, he doesn’t seem like a Rick Rubin or a T-Bone Burnett, where the search for a kind of original authenticity often takes the place of the only way to age gracefully, even at the risk of smelling like mothballs.
The approach of the young director, who has also worked with Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber and Post Malone and therefore knows a thing or two about Big Pop, sometimes errs on the side of indecision. Does he want to pave the way that returns the Stones to their true identity, or remove their rough edges so they can play as much of the airwaves as possible?
But in general, whoever co-signed three tracks finds the right balance between his desire to embed this album in a six-decade-old story and the desire to write a new chapter in the present.
PHOTO LAWRENCE BRYANT, Portal ARCHIVE
The Rolling Stones in September 2021 with their new drummer Steve Jordan
Without Charlie (or almost)
And the infectious beat of Mess It Up? Since the days when Mick spent his nights dancing with Bianca at Studio 54, the cheeky boys had never grooved so cheekily. No coincidence: Mess It Up is one of the two songs that featured another Rolling Stones disco fan Charlie Watts for the last time.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, LA PRESS ARCHIVE
Charlie Watts and Keith Richards in 2006 at the Bell Center
This style of machine-gunning his snare drum, like a boxer alternating between uppercuts and jabs, is unique to him; You will recognize it by some measures.
Steve Jordan, Charlie’s bombastic successor and Keith’s long-time collaborator (he co-produced his three solo albums), takes on the thankless task of succeeding an icon with the heart and soul of a connoisseur.
However, that doesn’t stop the pirate Keef from being haunted by his comrade’s absence. When he appeared on Howard Stern’s show last Tuesday, his eyes were clouded with a sadness that we know little about. And listen to this touching confidence: every morning, after unfolding himself as best he can, the guitarist greets a portrait of his late friend, which hangs on the stairs at the exit from his bedroom.
Take control of things
“Nobody took matters into their own hands,” Mick Jagger told the New York Times last September. “No one has set a deadline. » In 2022, the singer therefore issued an ultimatum to his colleagues Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood: they had to have a new album under their arm by Valentine’s Day 2023, a finish line that was pushed back a few months by the production of records.
PHOTO THEA TRAFF, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVE
Keith Richards, Mick Jagger and Ronnie Wood
There is no talk of a later release of the album or a later appearance of the vinyl copies, a concern that is certainly commercial in nature, but only partially. Taking into account the length of a 33 rpm record, Hackney Diamonds’ 48 minutes were designed, a salutary decision that avoided the bloat typical of the compact disc era of Voodoo Lounge (1994) and Bridges to Babylon (1997) and A Big Bang (2005).
As for the guests, Paul McCartney arrives to play a round of the (not so) punky Bite My Head Off, although it would be impossible to know if Mick hadn’t greeted him during his bass solo. In the role of show-stealing chorister previously held by Merry Clayton (Gimme Shelter), Lady Gaga truly steals the show in “Sweet Sounds of Heaven.” Stevie Wonder also appears on this gospel escapade to the gates of heaven, a first collaboration with the Stones since they toured together in 1972.
Excerpt from Sweet Song of Heaven by the Rolling Stones
“Let the old still believe / That they are young,” intone Madame Gaga and her husband, 43 years her senior (Jagger turned octogenarian in July), in this piece of resistance, a pagan prayer in the form of an offering to the power of music, thanks to which Time and death suddenly no longer exist. We already knew it: Mick never reveals as much about himself as he does in the presence of a young woman.
By closing their album with their duet rendition of Rollin’ Stone, the Muddy Waters blues from which they stole their name, the Glimmer Twins seem to want to signal a closing loop, even if Jagger has already been doing so in interviews speaks of a following.
“Solos come and go,” Keith Richards said on the BBC’s Global News Podcast last week. “The riffs last forever. » But Mick, Keith and Ronnie – such is life – will all eventually join Charlie. Until then, let’s measure our happiness. You can’t always get what you want, but sometimes a new Stones album ends up in record stores on a nice Friday.
rock
Hackney Diamonds
The Rolling Stones
Polydor
On offer on Friday