The Rolling Stones are back with their first original album released in 18 years, Hackney Diamonds, the first since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. The new album seeks to balance classic energetic, guitar riff-infused anthems that could have been straight out of the band’s 1981 Tattoo You, with ballads, dance floor grooves, and even a gospel epic with Lady Gaga that show that although the members of the band could qualify as senior citizens, musically they are as young and creative as ever.
After having listened to the album several times, I felt that the album was a well-rounded release with several standouts for musically diverse reasons. The first standout was, of course, the first track, “Angry”, which was released a few months before the album’s October 20th release date and, elevated by a great guitar riff and well-written lyrics, is a great way to introduce the band’s new album, despite the heavy use of autotune in this particular song, which did slightly conflict with the band’s “return to basics” style melody, but not to the extent that it ruined my enjoyment of the song.
Nate Bradl, a freshman at HHS, agreed with this sentiment, stating his opinion that “some of the songs were well crafted and brought back the nostalgia of the old Rolling Stones music, but there was a heavy auto-tune that made it sound a little too different from the classics.”
Other standouts include the second track “Get Close” which emulated a similar energy to “Angry”, the sweet country guitar infused melody in “Depending on You”, and the aforementioned Lady Gaga gospel duet with Mick Jagger and Stevie Wonder on piano, Sweet Sounds of Heaven, which reasonably lives up to its grandiose name. That being said, the album wasn’t simply a mediocre release held up by a few hits, as even an average track like “Mess it Up” neatly showcases the craftsmanship of the Rolling Stones as a band who, instead of losing their luster over time, have been honing their skills over six decades to fine tune the creative process to their musical will.
Chris Hoppe, a junior at HHS, stated that, “the features from various artists definitely contributed to the success of the album” as the inclusion of musicians such as Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder “appealed to the generations of fans born in the decades since the band’s inception.”
The general consensus among critics and fans seem to be positive, as the Rolling Stones mostly (save for the excessive autotune in some songs) adept incorporation of more contemporary musicians and technology into their classic beats is an unbeatable combination, showing the world that the group has, is, and will always be one of the greatest rock bands in the history of the world.
