When the first single from “Hackney Diamonds”, “Angry” came out a few weeks I tweeted that “it sounded way better than 80-year-old men had a right to.”
Then I thought about it: what are the rules? The answer is there isn’t a rule book, and of course, if there was, The Rolling Stones would have ripped it up anyway.
They’re bound by a weight of expectation, but they don’t sound like they care in the slightest. Instead they embrace the legacy, and use it to look to the future.
On “Get Close”, Elton John turns up for the first time and Mick sneers about doing deals with the Devil. The drums are interesting too, kind of tribal, and the sax solo has a New York vibe.
“Depending On You” is a wonderful thing. On one hand, a simple break-up song, (“She’s giving her loving to somebody else” he sings with a hint of wistfulness), but there’s a country vibe to Keith’s playing, and the words: “I’m too young to die and too old to lose”. And never too old to rock. My god, “Bite My Head Off” the much-vaunted duet with Paul McCartney is raucously filthy fun. It is so full of attitude and strut that it’s damn near punk rock. Jagger thunders that “I ain’t on a leash” and furthermore that “I’m fucking with your brain. All the while this is going on there’s the most Stones guitar line ever.
“Whole Wide World” is another that is built on its riff. Reflecting on a past life including a “filthy flat in Fulham” it’s a rocker with a warning: you think the party’s over, it is only just begun. It’s one for the Dreamers dammit, and the solo? As good as it gets. Astonishing stuff.
There was an email that went round to all subscribers yesterday with an interview with Mick saying “it is not like we’re remaking Sticky Fingers” and whilst that’s true, they must feel the weight of the past. “Dreamy Skies” has a bit of a “Midnight Rambler vibe, but there’s a real warmth and skill about its road weary honky tonk back porch acoustics.
Oddly considering how this rocks, that one feels like a centrepiece. The one that follows “Mess It Up” swivels its hips over a quasi-disco beat. Shiny, sparkling and the idea of the glitterball isn’t far away.
Elton’s back for the straight-up rocker, “Live By The Sword”, which reminds us that handclaps make a song better and also contains the suggestion on its sloganeering that “if you’re gonna be a whore, you’d better be hardcore”. Quite.
“Driving Me Too Hard” underlines what a wonderful guitar player Keith Richards is and what a wonderful foil Ronnie is, and on an album where everything is so brilliantly done, the harmonies are from the top draw.
“Tell Me Straight” is the “Keith song” if you will. He simultaneously sounds like he’s propping up the bar, and not ready to suffer fools. There’s a gospel tinge to “Sweet Sounds Of Heaven”, where the organ plays second support to Lady Gaga’s incredible cameo. A bit of an epic jam, it’s a chance too for new drummer Steve Jordan (who does a mighty job throughout) to say hello.
An album that has often felt like a statement of defiance ends in an intresting fashion. “Rolling Stone Blues” is an acoustic and a harmonica, and a flavour of Bob Dylan, if he got dirty instead of poetic.
The last words on the album before the harp wails one last time are “he’s gonna be a Rolling Stone” and Keith and Mick know here, they know how good a record this is. You can feel the confidence. The sort of innate understanding that if they were going to do this, they were going to do it right.
Album 23 arrives some 17 years after a bigger bang, it’s shorter, more focused and better for it.
They’re arguably the greatest rock n roll band ever, and we all feel like we know them (crikey just look how often I’ve used first names here) but the Rolling Stones owed no one anything.
That’s why “Hackney Diamonds” is so special. They didn’t need to make it, but now it’s here, it’s the Rolling Stones reminding everyone that there’s no retirement age on rock ‘n roll.
Rating 9/10
