The Rolling Stones – Foreign Tongues

For decades, fans of The Rolling Stones wondered if they’d ever get themselves off the road and back into the studio. These days, they’d be forgiven for wondering whether they’ll ever get out of the studio and back on the road. After 2023’s Hackney Diamonds broke an 18-year dry spell when it came to new studio material, Foreign Tongues is their second fresh album in three years, and like its predecessor, there are no plans to tour it. Unlike its predecessor, it comes closer to tapping into the true soul of the Stones than any new album has since maybe 1981’s Tattoo You.

Forget the high-profile guests (Paul McCartney and Robert Smith among them): Foreign Tongues rejects the flash and polish of Hackney Diamonds for a diverse group of songs tied together by a palpable understanding of what makes the Stones great. There are rambunctious blues numbers (Rough and Twisted; Covered in You), scorching rockers (Hit Me in the Head), gospel-infused stompers (Never Wanna Lose You) and even a rare foray into political songwriting in the standout Ringing Hollow, a lament on the state of America that evokes the country sound that defined 1969’s Let It Bleed. 

After years of retreads, Foreign Tongues represents a near-miraculous return to form. Even with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in their eighties, it's an album of such startling vitality that it suggests there's a whole new chapter ready to be written in this most legendary of rock and roll stories.

Listen to: Rough and Twisted, Ringing Hollow, Hit Me in the Head