New Rolling Stones album features Paul McCartney, Elton John, Lady Gaga and more guests
The Rolling Stones have confirmed a number of stars will feature on their album including Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Elton John.
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The Rolling Stones have confirmed Lady Gaga’s cameo on their upcoming new record Hackney Diamonds.
The Bad Romance superstar has been a surprise special guest performer at Stones‘ shows over the past decade and duets with Mick Jagger on the album track Sweet Sound of Heaven. Stevie Wonder is behind the keys on the song.
As flagged by the legendary rockers at their recent press conference to celebrate their first studio record of original songs in almost two decades, other guests include Paul McCartney playing bass on the track Bite My Head Off.
Elton John, one of the most popular studio collaborators in pop music, lends his piano skills on two songs, Get Close and Live By The Sword. The latter track also features Bill Wyman, who left the Stones 30 years ago.
As the band rolls into their seventh decade of recording and performing, their latest single Angry proves they have legs in the streaming era.
It has generated more than 3.5 million plays on Spotify since its release last week.
But it is the video, which features Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney dancing in a convertible on Sunset Strip, that has taken off. It has generated more than 14 million views since it dropped on YouTube.
But it is on TikTok where the Stones comeback is truly exploding with Angry soundtracking videos which have had more than 618 million views.
The Stones have long faced the seemingly insurmountable challenge of creating new music which would measure up to their pop culture-defining hits from the 60s through to the 80s.
With Angry, the first taste of their incoming new studio record Hackney Diamonds, they deliver a song which is both a nod to their glory days and a breath of fresh air in an era of over-produced homogenised pop.
Angry is classic Stones all the way, instantly recalling their 1981 smash Start Me Up.
The first new music to be released since the death of their beloved drummer Charlie Watts features all those signatures you expect from Mick, Keef and Ronnie.
Jagger employs his signature mockney snarl on tightly-crafted lyrics about a lover’s tiff, apparently mystified about why he hasn’t got laid in a month.
Richards busts out a trademark lead solo while Wood touches all the nostalgic buttons with his rock’n’roll guitar riffs.
Watts will be credited on the album for studio work completed before his death in 2021 but on Angry, his successor Steve Jordan is in the chair and proves to be a steady rhythmic hand.
If the ultimate test of a single is whether its chorus hook sticks, just try getting “Don’t get angry with me” out of your head after the third listen.
The band cleverly, with tongue firmly in cheek, play with the perception of their best studio days being in decades past in the clip starring Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney.
As she sexily cavorts in a convertible down Sunset Boulevard, billboards featuring the Stones’ members, including Watts, through the ages spring to new life as they perform Angry.
Now all we need to celebrate the song in its purest live form is for the Stones to make good on the rumours circling that they will return to Australia to tour next year.
‘WE’RE LAZY’: WHY NEW STONES ALBUM TOOK 18 YEARS
Their combined age is 235 but wild horses can’t hold back the Rolling Stones.
Six decades on, the world’s greatest rock’n’rollers Mick Jagger, 80, Keith Richards, 79, and Ronnie Wood, 76, have recorded a new studio album, Hackney Diamonds, which will be released globally on October 20.
“We’re pleased with it, not being big headed, or anything, but we love it ourselves and we hope you’ll love it,” frontman Jagger said with characteristic swagger at a launch event in London hosted by US talk show host, Jimmy Fallon.
Unveiling details of their first studio album of original music since 2005’s A Bigger Bang, founding member Richards let slip a few surprise details to the rapt audience, telling Fallon that “Lady Gaga and (imitating a pianist) Stevie Wonder are on it …
“It is fun; it is where a band can come together, playing live is the other Holy Grail, but to record is where the guys can come together and pass around ideas without any interference. It’s a great place for a band to work it all out,” he said.
Asked if they worry about how fans will react to the new music, Richards added: “No, we just cross our fingers.”
Richards also opened up about the absence of original drummer Charlie Watts who died in 2021. “Ever since Charlie’s gone, it’s been different, he’s number four. Of course he’s missed.”
It is the first time the legendary band have released an album of new material in 18 years.
(The band’s most recent album, Blue & Lonesome, was released in 2016 and was comprised of blues covers.)
*HACKNEY DIAMONDS*
— The Rolling Stones (@RollingStones) September 6, 2023
The brand new studio album!
Yours October 20th. Pre-order now & listen to ANGRYhttps://t.co/vaMZOCL0M5#therollingstones#hackneydiamondspic.twitter.com/OGVEkreCnj
Jagger, who remains the ultimate rock star, explained why the band took 18 years to record new songs. “We’ve been very lazy,” he said, adding the band sat down and decided to set a deadline to get new music out.
“We had this chat in December and said, ‘OK, make sure we do it before Christmas and finish it by Valentine’s Day.’”
One track is said to feature the two surviving Beatles members – Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. There are also recordings made with Watts prior to his death two years ago.
The newspaper advert included a website and a phone number, which when called responded with the automated message: “Welcome to Hackney Diamonds, specialists in glass repair. Don’t get angry, get it fixed. Opening early September, Mare Street, E8. Register for a call at hackneydiamonds.com. Come on then.”
The phrase Hackney Diamonds is old East London slang for broken glass and specifically refers to the shattered glass that results when windows are smashed during a robbery.
“Hackney may be at the heart of Hackney Diamonds, but this is a truly global moment we want to share with fans around the world via YouTube,” the group said in a statement on earlier this week.
The Rolling Stones resumed their No Filter North American tour in late 2021, shortly after Watts’ death, with drummer Steve Jordan behind the kit.
But Jagger – who turned 80 in July – shows no signs of slowing down.
Last year, they commemorated their 60th anniversary with a multi-date Sixty tour of Europe.
The Rolling Stones formed in the early 1960s.
According to the Official Charts Company, the band has had eight No 1 singles in the UK, including (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, Paint It Black and Honky Tonk Women.
Last year Jagger and the guitarists Richards and Wood travelled through Europe for their 60th anniversary tour featuring stops in cities including Madrid, Milan and Munich, and also a performance at the British Summer Time festival in London.
Earlier this month bronze figures of Jagger and Richards were unveiled in their hometown of Dartford, Kent, where the pair met in 1961.
Fans can watch the interview with Fallon on YouTube.
The full tracklisting of Hackney Diamonds, released on October 20.
Angry
Get Close
Depending On You
Bite My Head Off
Whole Wide World
Dreamy Skies
Mess It Up
Live By The Sword
Driving Me Too Hard
Tell Me Straight
Sweet Sounds Of Heaven
Rolling Stone Blues
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