Rolling Stones, ‘Foreign Tongues': Album Review

The Rolling Stones have touted the recording of their 25th album, Foreign Tongues, as having been completed quickly, with most sessions taking place in less than a month. The accelerated rush at West London's Metropolis Studios is meant to recall the swiftness of the band's early days, when new Rolling Stones songs were released every couple of months.

That comparison is no accident. The band has been on a creative rebound lately, with their previous two records — 2016's all-blues-covers Blue and Lonesome and Hackney Diamonds from 2023, their first album of original material in 18 years — featuring their best and most inspired work in decades. With Foreign Tongues, they continue the streak.

Like last time, there are big-name guests — Paul McCartney, who made an appearance on Hackney Diamonds, is back, and the Cure's Robert Smith provides some assistance. And returning producer Andrew Watt structures Foreign Tongues like a classic Rolling Stones album, integrating riff-driven rock songs ("In the Stars"), mid-tempo ballads ("Jealous Lover"), blues belters ("Rough and Twisted"), a country-tilting track ("Ringing Hollow") and a solo spotlight for Keith Richards ("Some of Us").

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There are even a couple of covers: Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good" and a low-fi, acoustic version of Chuck Berry's "Beautiful Delilah," a song the Stones were performing in 1964 (as heard on the 2017 BBC set On Air). But the best of the 14 tracks are the new originals penned by Richards and Mick Jagger; as with the album's swift recording, they are intended to replicate the band's past, in this case, their '70s commercial prime. Songs such as "Rough and Twisted" and "Divine Intervention" especially explode with nostalgic intensity. But this has been the Stones' stock-in-trade since being crowned the World's Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band. They can't help but sound like the Rolling Stones, no matter the context.

And Foreign Tongues sounds like a Rolling Stones album, and a good one at that. Slide guitar, harmonica and gospel-meets-R&B female backing singers snake through the songs with the self-conscious yet effortless swagger that's defined their best records. Watt's algorithmic polish sometimes expunges the record of a personality, and the Winehouse cover and the six-plus minutes of "Back in Your Life" wouldn't be missed if cut, but the band rarely shows its age on Foreign Tongues. It's another late-career win.