ALBUM REVIEW: The Rolling Stones Regain Their Shine on ‘Hackney Diamonds’

During the Rolling Stones’ awkward interview with Jimmy Fallon as they announced their new album last month, Fallon asked what the title, Hackney Diamonds, means.

“It’s like when you get your windscreen broken on Saturday night in Hackney,” Mick Jagger replied, referring to the East London borough. “And all the bits go on the street … that’s Hackney Diamonds.”

With that in mind, the title could be seen as a sly callback to Sticky Fingers, a bold reference for a band that many have accused of coasting and trading on nostalgia for at least the last 40 years. (That’s a long coast.) But for those who still find a lot to love from 1983’s Undercover to 2005’s A Bigger Bang, Hackney Diamonds will offer plenty of moments to hold up as evidence that the boys still have it.

The Rolling Stones (photo by Mark Seliger)

Blue and Lonesome, 2016’s all-blues covers album, acted as a palette cleanser for the Stones as they were in the middle of working on new material to follow A Bigger Bang. That hastily conceived project indeed seemed to light a creative spark in Jagger and Keith Richards. Still, they felt no rush to complete the new original material.

Cut to August of 2021 when the band lost their heartbeat with the passing of Charlie Watts. It was a crushing blow, but if the Stones have proven anything, it’s that they’re resilient. Upon the suggestion of Watts years before, they added longtime X-Pensive Winos drummer Steve Jordan (who has an impressively lengthy resume himself) and continued their scheduled world tour. When they reconvened to finish the new material, they decided not to continue with longtime producer Don Was. They were looking for fresh blood and fresh ears.

Enter Andrew Watt. The Grammy-winning producer has helmed albums from Ozzy Osbourne to Miley Cyrus to Justin Bieber, and he’s a serious Stones fan. Watt shared the band’s sudden sense of urgency, ensuring that Hackney Diamonds was finished in just a few months. The result is a loud, visceral set of songs that makes the band sound half … no, a third … its collective age. Richards’ and Wood’s guitars bob and weave as always, and Jordan complements them with a subtle yet powerful swing. His many years of backing Richards are apparent, as is why Charlie wanted Jordan to be next in the line of succession.

The star of the show here, however, is Jagger. You’d be forgiven if you forget that you’re listening to an 80-year-old great-grandfather while Hackney Diamonds plays. He sneers, growls, and draws out syllables to make his point. Jagger is still the detached romantic; still the vulgar, yet gentlemanly devil still in need of some restraint.

Hackney Diamonds is an overall more enjoyable listen than Bridges to Babylon, has more memorable moments than Voodoo Lounge, and is more concise and consistent than A Bigger Bang. In fact, at 48 minutes, it’s the shortest album since 1986’s Dirty Work. The rockers rock, the ballads sway, and the blues moan. As with any great Stones album, what’s most important is the dynamic between Jagger and Richards. The two actually sat in a room and wrote a song together like the old days. The result, “Driving Me Too Hard,” effortlessly balances Jagger’s pop leanings with Richards’ rootsy rawness. The opening lick explicitly calls back to “Tumblin’ Dice,” but the melody is all Jagger with a hook that sticks. It’s perfect single material.

Since the Stones helped create what’s now considered Americana, it makes sense that they explore that side on Hackney Diamonds with the lethargic, laid-back country of “Dreamy Skies.” Jagger drawls out his desire to get away from it all; no cell phones, no social media, nothing but an old AM radio that plays “Hank Williams and some bad honky-tonk.” Richards and Wood trade off electric and acoustic slide fills, nodding back to “You Got the Silver.” Then there’s “Depending on You,” one of the better Stones ballads of the last three decades. Ironically, it has shades of the Black Crowes, the ultimate Stones tribute band, during their Amorica era.

Like most every album since the mid-1980s, Richards’ turn at lead vocals comes in the form of a moody, late-night ballad. This time it’s “Tell Me Straight,” which evokes the sound and feel of Voodoo Lounge’s “Thru and Thru.”

Big names are sprinkled throughout Hackney Diamonds, but they don’t detract from the songs. Whether it’s boasting a Beatle on bass (Paul McCartney gets downright fuzzy on the loud and brash punk of “Bite My Head Off”) or piano from Captain Fantastic (Elton John barrelhousing through “Get Close” and “Live by the Sword”), make no mistake, the songs here are the diamonds, if you will.

Two songs even feature Charlie Watts on drums (recorded by Don Was in the early stages of the album). “Mess It Up” is propelled by that unmistakable Watts swing, coupled with jangling disco-funk guitar rhythms from Wood and Richards and a chorus right out of Studio 54. Then there’s “Live by the Sword.” Featuring not only Watts on drums but even Bill Wyman on bass, it’s the Some Girls-era Stones back together with Elton John playing the role of Ian Stewart. And it’s Mick at his most Jagger, with questionable advice like, “If you live like a whore, better be hardcore.”

While Elton channels Ian Stewart, no less than Stevie Wonder makes Nicky Hopkins smile from the great beyond as the legend sits in on “Sweet Sounds of Heaven,” one of the most passionate songs the Stones have given us in decades. With Lady Gaga impressively filling the role of the incomparable Merry Clayton (and, more recently, the great Lisa Fischer), the band takes us to church for over seven soul-affirming minutes. One can’t help but recall such anthems as “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “Shine a Light,” but “Heaven” is its own independent soul, complete with building dynamics, a false ending, and a classic Jagger falsetto that, for a moment, rivals Lady Gaga’s soaring delivery.

After the glorious bombast of “Heaven,” Hackney Diamonds closes with just Jagger and Richards playing the blues. But not just any blues: It’s the song that inspired their name. As the familiar lines of Muddy Waters’ “Rollin’ Stone” (here named “Rolling Stone Blues”) roll off Jagger’s infamous tongue, the Glimmer Twins are back at that train station in Dartford, Kent, where Jagger, saddled with an armful of R&B records (one of them The Best of Muddy Waters), ran into Richards and started this whole locomotive moving well over 60 years ago. If Hackney Diamonds is the final statement from the World’s Greatest Rock’n’Roll Band, then this is the perfect cherry on top … But it won’t be. In fact, Jagger has said they’re already three-quarters through completing the next one.

Let’s face it, the Stones will keep rolling until there’s no moss to gather.

The Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds is out Oct. 20 on Geffen Records.