The Rolling Stones, Hackney Diamonds, review: the rock veterans have never sounded more vital

When the Rolling Stones snarled into life in the early 60s, they were scrawny kids barely out of school who had modelled themselves on the ancient bluesmen of the American South.

Half a century later, the Stones have travelled full circle. With their excellent new album, Hackney Diamonds, Mick Jagger (80), Keith Richards (79), and Ron Wood (76) are now the antediluvian musicians. But they’ve never sounded more full of vitality. Age has not withered them – in fact, it seems to have barely intruded on their thoughts.

Hackney Diamonds is a lot of things. It is a reminder that the 2023 vintage Stones aren’t simply a monolithic touring machine cranking out moss-worn hits. The project is a reassertion of the louche genius that crackled through classic LPs such as Exile on Main Street and Let It Bleed – proof that nothing in rock’n’roll sparks like Jagger and Richards going at it full pelt.

Rolling Stones Image via Matt Charbonneau

Above all, however, it’s a delightful repudiation of the idea that musicians in their twilight years are obliged to reflect on their mortality. Hackney Diamonds is the opposite of that: it’s hard to think of an album further removed from the melancholy of Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker or Bowie’s Blackstar (recorded when he was 69, a full 11 years younger than Jagger).

The passage of time is referenced once or twice. “These streets I used to walk on/ Are full of broken glass,” observes Jagger on “Whole Wide World”. But unlike many of his peers, he doesn’t pine for the good old days. Being young, poor and obscure was a grind. What came next was much better – “You think the party’s over/ It’s only just begun.”

People have been writing the Stones off as decrepit fossils since the 90s – when they were only just out of their forties. So perhaps it is no surprise they seem indifferent to the wear and tear of the decades.

This point is made thrillingly with the opening number and first single, “Angry” – a blistering Richards barrage that lands its punches with aplomb. The track sets the tone for the rest of Hackney Diamonds, recorded in LA, New York, London and the Bahamas – well, this is the Rolling Stones – and produced by Andrew Wyatt.

The band seem indifferent to the wear and tear of the decades (Photo: Mark Seliger)

Wyatt comes to it fresh from 76-year-old Iggy Pop’s effervescent Every Loser. He works a similar magic with The Stones, refining the clichéd elements of their writing into a sound both familiar and full of zing.

There are lots of surprises. “Come on Paul, let’s hear something,” declares Jagger on “Bite My Head Off”. “Paul” would be Paul McCartney, who happened to be working in an adjoining studio and was invited to contribute a scintillating punk bassline to a tune that bristles with attitude.

There is also a cameo of sorts by Charlie Watts, the Stones drummer who died in 2021, by which time he had played on two of Hackney Diamonds’ 12 songs. His place is elsewhere filled by Steve Jordan, who lacks Watts’s jazzy nuance but brings plenty of the oomph this band demands.

Hackney Diamonds concludes with a glittering one-two. Lady Gaga provides dazzling backing vocals on the gospel-fuelled “Sweet Sounds of Heaven”: a seven-minute belter so quintessentially Rolling Stones you can almost see that giant lips logo materialise as it unfurls.

And then there’s the comedown: a raw, rootsy cover of Muddy Waters’ “Rolling Stone Blues” where Richards bashes an acoustic guitar and Jagger takes on the role of the haggard bluesman. It’s the only moment when he acts his age on a record that functions as an irresistible valentine to growing old with a wink and a roar.

Stream: Bite My Head Off, Sweet Sounds of Heaven