To put the rather overheated hype surrounding the Rolling Stones’ new album in superfan terms, Hackney Diamonds is not their best work since Some Girls, released some 45 years ago – but it is their best since Tattoo You, which was only three years younger. That the Stones have reached such a peak while grappling with what an octogenarian rock band should sound like – one that recently lost its nearly 60-year-old drummer, no less – is perhaps the most impressive feat of all.
The Stones have been here before – after all, they set the standard for how a 30-something rock band should sound, look and behave (and every decade since), and musically speaking, their greatest challenge has been how much to evolve… and how much not to. The group seemed to concede years ago that with such a legendary discography, new albums and attempts at new styles were almost superfluous; they probably got so tired of “Here’s a new song!” being the bathroom break cue for concert audiences that they figured, if you can’t top “Let It Bleed” or “Exile on Main Street,” why bother trying? Despite touring almost every year for the past decade, apart from a few stray tracks and a 2016 album of blues covers, this is their first new material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang.
However, adversity has historically brought out the best in the Stones, and the existential crisis of drummer Charlie Watts’ death in 2021 apparently sounded the alarm. The group teamed up with 32-year-old Grammy-winning producer Andrew Watt – who has produced hits for Post Malone and Justin Bieber, and more recently albums for Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop and Eddie Vedder – and deliberately recorded most of this album quickly with drummer Steve Jordan, who had been hand-picked by Watts to fill in for him on what was originally intended to be a temporary basis. And the result, while flawed, is far more vibrant and exciting than we had any reason to expect.
