Eighteen years passed between the essential “A Bigger Bang” and “Hackney Diamonds” to complete a new album of unreleased songs, then less than three to get to “Foreign Tongues”. It's not just a question of third or fourth youth (for the Rolling Stones the second arrived a few decades ago…), Keith Richards clarifies it in a recent interview: “The only reason why 'Foreign Tongues' came out is that we did so much work on 'Hackney Diamonds' that Andrew (Watt, the producer, ed) we looked at each other and realized that, in practice, this was a double album, only that we preferred to take a break first”. It is clear that, in eighteen years, a lot of hay had been put into the farm, but “Foreign Tongues” is not a second-class album compared to the previous one, it is not a work in which the leftovers have ended up: quite the opposite. And you can fully understand this by carefully listening to some of the brightest songs that crowd it: “In The Stars”, “Divine Intervention”, “Covered In You” and “Side Effects” have a pop infectiousness, a renewed vitality that few would have expected from the Rolling Stones in 2026, despite the melancholy for the time that is inexorably slipping away.
Then, in the fourteen songs of “Foreign Tongues”, there are many other ingredients that we know well and that in some way make the work both comfortable for the fan and captivating for the novice: formidable blues'n'roll (“Rough And Twisted”, “Mr Charm”), Mick Jagger's falsetto in “Jealous Lover” which takes us back to soft disk of the Seventies, the usual corner reserved for Richards' voice (“Some Of Us”), the characteristic guitar solos, among which one by Ronnie Wood in “Back In Your Life” stands out. And again a personal homage to Amy Winehouse, a kindred spirit of the Stones, of which they reread “You Know I'm No Good”, and a “Ringing Hollow”, basically the “political” song of the album, which transmutes the groove listened to up until that moment in a parenthesis that looks at country music to talk about America and falling out of love with a country that many years ago showed a completely different charm.
There is no shortage of stellar guests, the kind that only the Rolling Stones can afford: Paul McCartney on bass in “Covered In You”, Robert Smith of the Cure on keyboards and backing vocals in “Never Wanna Lose You” and on guitar in “Divine Intervention”, and again Steve Winwood, Benmont Tench of the Heartbreakers, Bruno Mars (on cowbell in “Never Wanna Lose You”) and Chad Smith (bass in the final track).
There is also Charlie Watts on “Hit Me In The End”, one of his latest recordings, and completing the basic quintet, Darryl Jones on bass and Steve Jordan on drums.
Will it be the Rolling Stones' last album? The epilogue entrusted to “Beautiful Delilah”, a cover of Chuck Berry, could prove to be the most significant closure possible, but Keith Richards himself says he is sceptical: do you want to see that Andrew Watt has silently put aside enough material to release another project in a couple of years? In the meantime, we're already fantasizing about yet another million-dollar tour…
07/17/2026
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
