A few weeks before his 83rd birthday, which he will celebrate on July 26, Mick Jagger continues to look ahead. The frontman of the Rolling Stones, busy promoting the new album “Foreign Tongues”, out on July 10, ironically retraced some chapters of the band's long history, joking about the brevity of certain works from the past: “In some of our albums there are eight songs. How is it possible? You're 30 years old and you only do eight songs? What were you doing?”.
The new album contains twelve new songs and two reinterpretations, “You Know I'm No Good” by Amy Winehouse and “Delilah” by Chuck Berry. Recorded in just a month at London's Metropolis Studios under the guidance of producer Andrew Watt, the album has already fueled speculation about a possible Stones recording farewell. A hypothesis that Jagger rejected without hesitation: “I have many other songs to write”. The singer also revealed that during the same sessions the band worked on at least ten other songs, suggesting that there is no shortage of material for the future.
Looking back at the twenty-five albums released by the Rolling Stones from their 1964 debut to today, Jagger explained that he couldn't name one as his favorite. “The list is long: I think 'Sticky Fingers' is very good, 'Beggars Banquet' is a great record, and 'Hackney Diamonds' is pretty good too.” Three titles – two historical, another added perhaps for convenience? – which photograph very different eras of the group's career, from the blues-rock of the late Sixties to the electric energy of the early Seventies, up to the recording return of 2023 after eighteen years of absence.
According to Jagger, the ability to reinvent itself was one of the keys to the Stones' longevity. “We have gone through many phases, many styles,” he observed, underlining how “Foreign Tongues” was also born with the aim of further broadening the band's range of action. “We want to raise the bar, show that we can do many different things.”
The new album “Foreign Tongues”, according to first impressions, brings together two historical souls of the Rolling Stones: on the one hand the rough and visceral blues of Keith Richards which recalls the spirit of “Exile On Main Street”, on the other the melodic and more pop instinct of Mick Jagger which characterized “Some Girls”. At least that's how journalist Will Hodgkinson describes “Foreign Tongues”, the band's new album out July 10th. In the review published in the Times, Hodgkinson is the first to describe the album after having listened to it in its entirety. Among the aspects that struck him most is the spontaneous and immediate atmosphere of the recordings, with a sound that gives the sensation of a band playing live.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
