Six Reasons To Love The Rolling Stones' New Foreign Tongues Album

One of Charlie's last recordings

The album carries one of drummer Charlie Watts' final recordings, cut in Los Angeles in 2021 during sessions with Don Was, only months before his passing. It could hardly be more fitting that the thumping 'Hit Me In The Head' is all about going out with a bang. Said to have grown out of Mick Jagger egging the band on to play as fast as they possibly could, it's a raw, snarling, punk-rock stomp that proves the Wembley Whammer was swinging right to the very end.

 An A-list supporting cast

Following the stellar guest turns on 2023's Hackney Diamonds, fizzes with A-list cameos. Paul McCartney, on his second Stones album running, plays bass on the snappy shuffle 'Covered In You'. Elsewhere you'll find The Cure's Robert Smith lending a hand on guitar and synths, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers flexing his muscle on concert drum for a cover of Chuck Berry's 'Beautiful Delilah', and megastar Bruno Mars popping up on, you guessed it, cowbell.

Steve Winwood reconnects the Stones to their golden era

Speaking of marquee guests, Spencer Davis and Traffic legend Steve Winwood appears on no fewer than nine tracks on Foreign Tongues, playing Rhodes, organ and piano. The story goes that he was invited by producer Andrew Watt to play on a single song, but impressed so much that he kept coming back.

"Stevie's great. He just kept showing up at the studio," Ronnie Wood says of the experience. "You remember when he first came through, America had Little Stevie Wonder, we had Little Stevie Winwood. I was just starting out in bands then as well. We were having a laugh about when we were the youngest kids around, because I think he was about 15 when he started with Spencer Davis, and I was 17 with the Birds. But when he came in to play on these new tracks, Stevie said it was the best band vibe he'd ever experienced."

High praise indeed.

A perfect Amy Winehouse tribute

The aforementioned Chuck Berry number isn't the only cover here. There's also a poignant tribute to Amy Winehouse, with the Stones putting their heartfelt stamp on 'You Know I'm No Good'. It fits them like a glove: Jagger's slinky harmonica stands in for the original's trademark horns, a proper Stones touch on a version that, more than anything, underlines what a songwriting talent Winehouse was.

"In a weird way, that song was supposed to meet us somewhere, for some reason," muses Keith. "I was always thinking 'Well, I'm bound to meet her down the road.' You kind of expect things to happen, and unfortunately no. I thought, it's been a while since we've done a cover, and I said 'If we're gonna do another cover version, Amy's is the one."

This is classic Stones

Foreign Tongues is a tour through the best of the sounds the Stones have made their own over the decades. Opener 'Rough and Twisted' (the words to which are translated as Gaeilge in a neat lyric video), first slipped out on white-label vinyl under the alias The Cockroaches, proves the lads are as bluesy as ever: a raw, sinuous R&B workout that reminds you exactly where this band came from.

'Divine Intervention', meanwhile, gallops along like an old-school rock and roll belter before opening out into a big, radio-ready chorus. And 'Jealous Lover' struts on a soulful groove from their 80s period, Jagger's falsetto crooning a pointed but playful warning to an overly nosy, suspicious partner.

Mick, Keith and Ronnie, all on fire

A great band is always more than the sum of its parts. But that doesn't mean there's no room for each individual legend to shine, and for all the guest star power, the core trio still do exactly that.

Keith steps up to the mic on 'Some Of Us'. Reportedly revived from a lost 1980s demo, his grizzled, weathered tones carry an emotional heft only his could give them. On the slow-building 'Back In Your Life', Ronnie Wood delivers a gut-punch of an epic solo, one he poured extra raw feeling into after recording it in the shadow of the recent passing of influences Brian Wilson and Sly Stone.

And Jagger is doing what Jagger has always done, performing with pathos and swagger in equal measure, turning out sharp lyrics on romance and everything else - even offering his own two cents on the state of America today on the nostalgic but biting 'Ringing Hollow'.

Foreign Tongues is out July 10 – click here to listen.