#Rolling stones birthday song lyrics full#

#Rolling stones birthday song lyrics full#

The 80-year-old sounds full of fire, emphasizing the drawls and yowls we’ve known for six decades without descending into unintentional self-parody (intentional self-parody always being one of his greatest gifts).

The greatest beneficiary of Watt’s efforts, or maybe just of his own boundless ambition, is Jagger’s vocal performance. The album almost runs like a playlist of the band’s various styles: the dirty groove of “Get Close,” the country weeper “Dreamy Skies,” the lovelorn ballad “Depending on You.” It isn’t all best-in-show (“Angry,” the opening track and first single, is one of the weaker songs, sounding very much like the Stones doing the Stones), but there’s not a real dud to be found. (Interesting to note that Watt has three songwriting co-credits on Hackney Diamonds-more than guitarist Ronnie Wood has received on any Stones record in almost fifty years with the band aside from 1986’s fractious Dirty Work.) His touch sometimes adds a bit too much gloss to these rockers’ sounds, but he’s clearly able to get them to focus on playing to their strengths. Some credit has to go to Grammy-winning producer Andrew Watt, who made his name working with Post Malone and Justin Bieber but has more recently taken on the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Elton John, and Iggy Pop. Finally, Jagger laid down a deadline, insisting that an album be completed by this past Valentine’s Day.

The Stones had been poking at new music for many years, seemingly spinning their wheels and getting distracted by developments productive (2016’s excellent Blue & Lonesome, made up entirely of blues covers) and tragic (the 2021 death of drummer Charlie Watts). But maybe feeling a little bit hurt, with something to prove, serves the band well, since Hackney Diamonds-their 26 th studio album and first collection of original material in 18 years-is a startling and unlikely triumph, a consistently solid and swaggering set of songs from a group still stretching the limits of what’s possible in rock n' roll.