The Rolling Stones let loose on latest triumph ‘Foreign Tongues’
3 years on from ‘Hackney Diamonds’, the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band team up with Paul McCartney, Robert Smith and Steve Winwood for another honky-tonk rock spectacular.
★★★★½
When The Rolling Stones announced a new album, Hackney Diamonds, in 2023, no one could believe it. After seven years away and the passing of founding drummer Charlie Watts, the group returned triumphantly, promising poured-over collabs, soaring ballads and sneering, jibing rockers. For many, it was the Stones’ worthy last hurrah.
Well, no longer. Not even three years later, the band of shuffling eighty-somethings serve up Foreign Tongues. So soon after what many considered one of the Stones’ best. Could Foreign Tongues live up to its predecessor? Could the group last more than one record without their iconic, driving heartbeat? Could Jagger and Richards muster up some more of that songwriting magic?
In a word, yes. In two, you bet. The record opens with Rough and Twisted, possibly the best track on here and one of the best later-era Stones tracks ever put out. It’s a real mean, lowdown rocker that bounces and pomps with the dancier moments of Emotional Rescue and Undercover. Jagger takes centre stage with his signature tongue-in-cheek remarks: “The only club was called Conspiracy / They didn’t like me much”. Effortlessly cool as ever.
The lead single, In the Stars, is a worthy addition to the canon, an air-strikingly upbeat anthem that sways between classic cut and sugary ballad. Jealous Lover, meanwhile, harks right back to Some Girls, as Jagger puts on possibly his most impressive falsetto yet. In fact, there’s quite a bit of the Stones’ previous work on Foreign Tongues.
Ringing Hollow brings up the longtime country blues of Beggars Banquet while tackling politics in the USA (“Lady Liberty don’t look so good / When she’s wearing a frown”). Mr. Charm, which mentions a certain ‘Mr. Musk’ by name, is pure Tattoo You, with stomping clap-along highs.
There’s undeniably old-fashioned Stones in powerhouses Divine Intervention and Never Wanna Lose You, which are likely to get any listener up and strutting around the room, duck lips and all. The boys lean into blues once more on Hit Me in the Head and their cover of Amy Winehouse’s You Know I’m No Good. While failing to reach the lofty heights of the original, Jagger weaves the track into his own pretty well, with booming drums and honky-tonk harmonica.
Some of Us is one of Richards’ best yet, while Side Effects proves a cooler point on the record, giving the boys space to play with the formula a little. I’m not the first to point out that the first track on the group’s debut EP was a Chuck Berry number (Bye Bye Johnny), and here we are closing out on another: Beautiful Delilah. It’s a loop that makes sense, and a reminder that the Stones are as much their roots and their influences as they are the sixty years hence.
For longtime fans of the Rolling Stones, Foreign Tongues is the treat that keeps on giving. I mean, who can say they don’t get giddy hearing Jagger singing “come on, Ronnie!” on Back in Your Life, all these years after their first shared chord? Who could have prophesied three of the four members would be here, in 2026, putting out great rock?
Strong as it was, Hackney Diamonds had its filler. Foreign Tongues, at fourteen tracks long, is remarkably lean. It’s a testament to the Stones’ wealth of talent (and that of a few special guests); when it rocks, it rocks, and when it yearns, it yearns. After a very rough and twisted road, if this does indeed end up being the group’s final stop, it’s the stuff monuments are made of.
Foreign Tongues is out now via Polydor Records.
