Hackney Diamonds

Hackney Diamonds is the twenty-fourth British and the twenty-sixth American studio album by the English rock band the Rolling Stones, released on 20 October 2023 on Polydor. It is the first album of original material by the Rolling Stones since 2005's A Bigger Bang and their first since the 2021 death of drummer Charlie Watts, who contributed to some tracks in 2019. Produced by Andrew Watt, it features guest contributions from Elton John, Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, and former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman.

Hackney Diamonds received positive reviews, with some critics considering it the band's strongest album in decades. It was promoted by the singles "Angry", "Sweet Sounds of Heaven", and "Mess It Up". The album was backed by an extensive marketing campaign that included publicity stunts and merchandise, amongst other promotions.

Hackney Diamonds reached number one in 20 countries, including the UK, Austria, Australia, Greece, Argentina, the Netherlands and Germany. It was the 14th Rolling Stones album to top the UK Albums Chart, in its first week and again on 22 December, making it the first Rolling Stones Christmas number one album. It was certified gold in several countries and certified platinum in Austria, France, and Germany. The Rolling Stones embarked on the Hackney Diamonds Tour in support of the album in 2024. The album won the award for Best Rock Album at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards.

Recording

The Rolling Stones had last released a studio album in 2016 with the blues covers album Blue & Lonesome whose sessions began with the band working on new original material recorded with Don Was but stalled. Some mitigating factors identified by guitarist Keith Richards include vocalist Mick Jagger's lack of enthusiasm for making new music and Richards being forced to adapt his playing style due to arthritis. Although the band had released their last album of original material, A Bigger Bang, in September 2005, they continued to release occasional tracks such as "Doom and Gloom" and "One More Shot" for the compilation GRRR! in 2012 and the 2020 single "Living in a Ghost Town" during the COVID-19 pandemic. For years, they toured, but when they met up as a group, it was only to rehearse for future performances, not record. The group again recorded sessions for a new album starting in 2020, but these were interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Studio work in 2021 yielded several completed songs as well, but the band lost momentum and focus in the studio. Jagger was frustrated with the slow process of recording and proposed to Richards after their touring ended in August 2022 that they would choose 14 February 2023 as a due date for their new album. Richards credits drummer Charlie Watts's 2021 death as the impetus to become more serious about finishing an album's worth of material.

In mid-2022, Paul McCartney suggested producer Andrew Watt to guitarist Ronnie Wood to continue their work on an album and Jagger agreed, appreciating Watt's approach to producing new music from long-time acts. The band invited Watt to see them perform in Electric Lady Studios in late 2022 and he took over recording at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles by November of that year. Further recordings in late 2022 and early 2023 with Watt included McCartney playing bass guitar on two new Stones songs. Altogether, principal recording was about four weeks, followed by two weeks of overdubs, and Jagger's vocals recorded separately, only after the guitar work was finished. In June 2023, former bassist Bill Wyman announced that he had recorded with the band for the first time in 30 years based on a recommendation by Watt, and additional recordings with Elton John are included on the release. The album includes 2019 sessions that have the last studio work by Watts and the band's first studio work with drummer Steve Jordan. Final recording for the album began in December 2022, with 23 total tracks finished in January 2023 and mixing done in late February or early March. At the end, the band had enough material for a follow-up album, which vocalist Mick Jagger estimated was 75% done by the time that Hackney Diamonds was released. The recording process included multiple studios across the world and was captured by a documentary crew for the television special The Stones: Still Rolling.

News reports have indicated that the album's name is London slang for the shattered glass left behind after burglars have smashed a window to break in, Hackney being an inner-city area of London historically associated with a high crime rate. Richards stated it refers to broken glass left over in the morning after "a good Saturday night that went bad".

Long-time Stones bass guitarist Darryl Jones was reported to have worked on these sessions but does not appear on the final album, making Hackney Diamonds the first studio album since 1989's Steel Wheels not to feature any recorded contributions from him.

Promotion and release

Hackney Diamonds had been promoted with an extensive, worldwide advertising campaign coordinated by Universal Music Enterprises in London. On 17 August 2023, an advertisement appeared in the Hackney Gazette teasing the album, referencing several Rolling Stones song titles and displaying their tongue logo. On 22 August, social media profiles posted new artwork by Paulina Almira, and Universal Music Group debuted a website to promote the release, on which a countdown appeared and solicited questions for the band. The group posted links to the site on their social media accounts on 29 August and showed photos of their lip logo projected on various monuments around the world. These projections continued to 2 September, when the band previewed a short snippet of "Angry" on the website dontgetangrywithme.com, which experienced instability and frequent errors that some interpreted as being intentional.

On 4 September, the album was officially announced, as were the plans for a livestream with television host Jimmy Fallon where more information would be revealed and the lead single would be premiered. On 6 September, the livestream was broadcast on the Rolling Stones' official YouTube channel while being filmed at the Hackney Empire Theatre in London. Fallon interviewed the band, who revealed the album's track list and release date, as well as alluding to various guest musicians, and answered questions sent in from fans. The music video for "Angry" premiered after the interview concluded, which features actress Sydney Sweeney being driven through Los Angeles in a red convertible, with the band members singing to her from large billboards along the way.

"Sweet Sounds of Heaven" was teased by the band via an Instagram post on 25 September 2023, which played a short snippet of the track and revealed its release date; the single was released three days later. In early October, a fashion line designed by Paul Smith was announced that would promote the album, and retail stores in London and Tokyo opened to sell Rolling Stones merchandise ahead of the album. The single "Mess It Up" also came out in October.

Shortly after the newspaper advertisement implying the album release, 12 songs were registered to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers under the names of Jagger–Richards, with three tracks co-written by Andrew Watt. The final track listing was released on 6 September and included "Rolling Stone Blues", a Muddy Waters song that gave their band their name; they had never covered it previously on a release and this was the sole recording for this album recorded to tape. It was also one of the songs that Jagger and Richards bonded over when connecting as youths, when Richards spotted Jagger carrying a copy of The Best of Muddy Waters on a train.

The limited edition vinyl LP cover art has a mass of eyeballs and tongues, and a retailer-exclusive edition has the cracked diamond heart surrounded by red limbs. Additional covers are made for every Major League Baseball team, featuring the tongue and lips logo in each team's colors and a limited edition by KidSuper featuring the lips logo with red fingerprints around it. The day before the album release, FC Barcelona announced a special version of their home kit designed to promote it, which was worn by the men's team in the home Clásico against Real Madrid on 28 October and the women's team in the match against Sevilla one week later.

As the release date drew near, the band began rehearsing for a supporting tour, and raised the possibility of virtual reality avatars for future performances. While no tour dates were announced by the time of the album release, the band played a seven-song set on 19 October 2023 at the 650-capacity Racket (fka Highline Ballroom) in New York City with Lady Gaga as they made promotional television appearances. The Rolling Stones are due to tour in support of the album in 2024.

Critical reception

According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Hackney Diamonds received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 78 out of 100 from 14 critic scores. Several critics have declared this the band's best album in decades. Most assessments of the album are positive, aside from a negative review published by Pitchfork.

Classic Rock's Ian Fortnam rated the album 4.5 out of 5 stars, stating "[the band] haven't delivered an album this quintessentially Stonesy in 40 years ... [this one] only ever leaves the listener hungry for more". Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph gave this album 5 out of 5 stars, characterizing it as "a raucous and dirty modern rock classic" and that the band is as good as they were in the 1970s. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian gave this album 4 out of 5 stars and credited Andrew Watt by writing that the music "suggest[s] the presence of someone who knows how to make contemporary hits, and there's a light modern sheen to the production that prevents it sounding like a determined recreation of the Stones' past". In The Independent, Mark Beaumont scored Hackney Diamonds 4 out of 5 stars, opining that the band's guitarists sound young and vital, and the combination of older pop musician guest stars makes this release have "a sense of career closure".

NME's Alex Flood gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "an absolute barnstormer" that is "very enjoyable". Will Hodgkinson of The Times noted that Hackney Diamonds "sound[s] like a summation of all the things that make the Stones great" and is "unquestionably the Stones' best [album] since [1978's] Some Girls". Hodgkinson gave Hackney Diamonds 5 out of 5 stars, calling it "a joy from beginning to end" and praising its modern sound. Sister publication The Sunday Times featured a track-by-track break-down by Dan Cairns, drawing parallels with many releases in the band's catalogue, particularly from the 1970s. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, in a 3.5 out of 5 review, wrote "at its heart, it's nothing more than the Rolling Stones knocking out some good Rolling Stones songs, which seems like a minor miracle after such a long wait".