Hackney Diamonds is the newest album from the legendary British band The Rolling Stones. It’s their 24th studio album and the first one containing original material in 18 years! This record comes just two years after the death of the band’s long-time drummer Charlie Watts.
Obviously, this band needs no introduction, but I do want to give a brief history of my history with the band. Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of the Stones and haven’t listened to most of their records, due to their extensive discography. However, I have listened to a little more than a handful of their albums, with favorites including Exile on Main St. and Sticky Fingers. I respect them for the legends they are, and always hearing Mick sing and seeing videos of his eccentric performances always puts a smile on my face.
But enough reminiscing, let’s get into it!
The album opens up with the absolute BANGER that is “Angry”, which more-or-less shows you what direction this album is going to take. The song reminds me of the opening track of the most recent AC/DC album, whose energy took me surprise and had my head banging within the first ten seconds. The riffs on “Angry” and Mick Jagger’s unadulterated energy (especially for a man in his 80s) led me to say what many critics have already said – they still got it!
The song that follows up is “Get Close”, a much softer romantic tune. While the song has a cool sax solo towards the end, I find the chorus to be a bit sappy and not in a good way. In fact, there are several songs on the album that I find to have this problem, such as “Whole Wide World” and “Driving Me Too Hard”. Don’t get me wrong, musically these songs are fantastic and feature some great guitar work, but I find the melodies to be amateurish and unlike the caliber I expect from the Stones.
Other than that though, I have no complaints.
My favorite tracks off the album are similar to the first, being the more aggressive songs. “Bite My Head Off”, featuring Paul McCartney on bass, sounds like a classic British punk tune. I thought I would actually hear McCartney sing, but he doesn’t to my dismay, although Keith’s guitar solo kicks ass. “Live By The Sword” features Elton John on piano, and the song absolutely rules. In addition, this is the last song Charlie Watts was featured in and it shows (not that Steve Jordan does a poor performance on the record).
I’m also fond of some of the softer, more acoustic pieces on the album, such as “Dreamy Skies”, a bluesy Americana track that features good vocals from Mick and great acoustic guitar work. “Tell Me Straight” features vocals from Keith, and good ones at that, and with a production style that’s very reminiscing of the 90’s, which I found to be an interesting touch.
“Sweet Sounds of Heaven”, featuring Lady Gaga, is the collab I never knew we need it. I don’t know why I was surprised, since Lady Gaga has been featured with other rock acts, but I’m glad I’m able to experience this collab because it’s the best song on the album. It’s a Gospel-inspired blues album, featuring Mick’s best vocals off the whole album and Lady Gaga doing what she does in a soulful manner. The horns added a fine flavor, along with Stevie Wonder’s keyboard playing, that ties the whole song together to its epic conclusion. However, the album ends with “Rolling Stone Blues”, which is a decision I do question, but I still think it’s a nice old-fashioned blues song.
Here are my ratings for each song on a scale of 0-4:
- Angry – 4
- Get Close – 2
- Depending on You – 3
- Off (featuring Paul McCartney) – 4
- Whole Wide World – 3
- Dreamy Skies – 4
- Mess It Up – 3
- Live By The Sword (featuring Elton John) – 4
- Driving Me Too Hard – 2
- Tell Me Straight – 4
- Sweet Sounds of Heaven – 4
- Rolling Stone Blues – 3
SCORE/Excellent: Much like AC/DC’s POWER UP, this album took me by surprise, not only of how good Mick and the boys still sounds, but how much energy they still have left in them. Obviously, not everything in this album hits, but enough of it does to the point where I might buy this on vinyl. If this is the last Rolling Stones album, I would be satisfied, because it would be tragic if they end with a dud after this. But who knows? The boys are in their 80’s and still jumping up and down like they did 60 years ago, they might still have a lot left to go.
[We rank albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]
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