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“We were lazy.” And considering that eighteen years have passed since their last work, perhaps Mick Jagger is not entirely wrong when he declared this when announcing the release of “Hackney Diamonds”, the new Rolling Stones album and the legendary band’s first in 18 years. which has been on the scene for over six decades.
The Stones (Mick Jagger, Ronnie Woods and Keith Richards) announced it at the Hackney Empire – a historic theater in East London – in a conversation on YouTube with the American comedian Jimmy Fallon.
Twelve tracks
Of the twelve tracks that make up the album, two were recorded in 2019 when drummer Charlie Watts was still alive. What stands out is the beautiful “Living By the Sword” which the group leader defined as a piece with a traditional, or rather “retro”, flavor. “The sound is angry, but there are also love songs”, underlined Jagger, who he really doesn’t want to think about retirement, before the launch of “Angry”, the opening single from the band’s latest work.
In the video of the opening piece, directed by Francois Rousselet, Sydney Sweeney, one of the protagonists of White Lotus and Euphoria, is present as she hovers on the hood of a red convertible, while the three Stones play on the large advertising billboards that line the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles.
“Hackney Diamonds”
Thinking about “Hackney Diamonds” the number to keep in mind is 24 (like the albums released so far by the Rolling Stones); the work is the first since “A Bigger Bang” in 2005. And if it is true that eighteen years have passed since the last effort in the recording studio, it is also true that, despite their age, in all these years the band has she has almost always been involved in very long tours around the five continents. “Playing live is the holy grail for a band, but recording in the studio is where we find ourselves exchanging ideas without interference. When it works it’s fantastic,” underlined Keith Richards, a year younger than Jagger, during the presentation of the album.