"Hackney Diamonds", The Rolling Stones new studio album

Maybe you’re expecting Hackney Diamonds to offer up a new Mick Jagger - this one more reflective and questioning, still coming to terms with the unexpected death of his friend and bandmate Charlie Watts in 2021. Naturally, the truth is far more compelling. If Charlie’s passing has had any impact on Jagger and his bandmates it has been to galvanize them: Hackney Diamonds strains at the leash to show just how vital and dynamic the Stones still are, with Jagger very much in pole position. In the tale of the Stones, it seems that even the so-called worst of times are among the best.

The work appears to have been encouragingly brisk. Despite sporadic recording sessions after their 2016 blues covers album Blue & Lonesome, Hackney Diamonds came into focus quite recently.

At the album launch in September, Jagger spoke of a self-imposed “deadline” for the project: “We went into the studio in December, cut 23 tracks, finished it off in January and mixed it in February.”

But Jagger is only telling part of the story. Sessions took place in studios in the Bahamas, New York, London and Los Angeles under the auspices of producer Andrew Watt. Despite the tight recording window, Hackney Diamonds also chauffeurs in a fleet of superstar guests: Lady Gaga, Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney.

More importantly for die-hard Stones fans are the two tracks recorded in 2019 with Charlie Watts - one of which also features Bill Wyman, making his first appearance on a Stones track since the band’s 2011 cover of Dylan’s “Watching The River Flow” for the

Ian Stewart tribute album, Boogie4 Stu. In Charlie’s absence, nine of Hackney Diamonds' 12 tracks feature Steve Jordan, Keith Richards’ consigliere in the X-Pensive Winos. Even before we get to the music, that’s a lot to unpack.

For a band who historically know the value of Track One, Side One, “Angry” is fantastic. It’s not quite their best single since “Start Me Up” - that would be “Doom And Gloom” - but it’s got everything you could possibly want from a Stones track. Propulsive riffs that AC/DC would be jealous of; a hilarious tale of quarrelling lovers; and a blistering Jagger vocal. Written in Jamaica, it’s the song that apparently unlocked the album for Jagger and Richards: it’s not hard to understand why.

But while many key Stones components are reassuringly present and correct on Hackney Diamonds, some are less easy to replace. At the album launch, Keith Richards articulated this in terms that were both straightforward but also intangible: “Ever since Charlie’s gone, it’s been different.”

After the romantic arguments of “Angry”, matters of Mick’s heart - another essential ingredient of Stones songs - further dominate Hackney Diamonds. “Get Close” has some nice lines - with “I walk the city at midnight with the past strapped to my back” Jagger sounds lonely at the top. “Depending On You” slows to a mid- ’70s, trans-Atlantic pace - somewhere between “Angie” and “Winter” - with some typically discreet Hammond playing from Benmont Tench. Both “Get Close” and “Depending On You” find Jagger as a supplicant, laying his feelings on the line to his unnamed inamorata. On “Bite My Head Off”, he’s totally lost the plot: “The whole fucking ship is sinking, sinking,” he yells, “/’m looking for a quickway out”. The guitars attack in formation (Keith, Mick, Ronnie), amped-up with wild electricity, recalling the uncouth swagger of “When The Whip Comes Down” And - hang on! - here’s Paul McCartney, cranked up to 11 on fuzz bass. “Come on, Paul, let’s hear something!” shouts Jagger in a mock-awful Liverpool accent as McCartney delivers a floor-shaking solo.

The whole thing is brilliant and hilarious: a song so unhinged it required three studios and eight engineers to contain it.

Jagger, incidentally, is all over Hackney Diamonds. At least three of the songs - “Angry”, “Whole Wide World” and “Mess It Up” - are likely his riffs. When he’s not singing or playing guitar, he’s pulling out a harp or overdubbing some percussion. There he is, exasperated on “Angry”; ready to pick a fight on “Bite My Head Off”; embracing redemption of “Sweet Sounds Of Heaven”; insouciant on “Rolling Stone Blues”. A smidgeon of autobiography seeps into “Whole Wide World”: “The filthy flat in Fulham, the smell of sex and gas/I never ever really knew, where I was sleeping next”. On “Dreamy Skies”, meanwhile, Jagger yearns to “take a break for a while”, just him and his old AM radio that “plays Hank Williams and some bad honky-tonk”. It’s a wry C&W number, with Keith on bass and arranged around Ronnie’s meticulous pedal-steel playing, which Watt wisely gives space and room to breathe.

Watt, the Grammy-winning super-producer who started his career working with Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and Ed Sheeran, has become the go-to producer for senior artists - Elton, Ozzy, Iggy, McCartney - looking to reboot their sound. For Hackney Diamonds, Watt brings a requisite nowness to the Stones: the album is clean and clear enough to work on your phone as much as your CD player. The album title, all very in-your- face and relevant, describes broken windscreen glass. Previous attempts to modernize the Stones haven't always worked, but as refreshes go, consider this one a discreet nip and tuck, perhaps, rather than a comprehensive Swiss clinic blood transfusion.

Stones connoisseurs, meanwhile, might like a bit more of a road trip between the rockers and the ballads - a touch of light reggae, perhaps, or a samba workout. They will certainly welcome "Mess It Up" and "Live By The Sword" - the two 2019 tracks featuring Charlie. "Mess It Up" Is a very now song (codes are stolen; a phone is nicked; photos shared publicly) but the thrill is hearing Charlie come in a beat ahead of Keith’s riff, before falling behind it - how did he do that? "Live By The Sword" sounds like an outtake from It's Only Rock’n’Roll - crunchy glam chords, barrelhouse piano (thanks Elton!), a blistering solo from Keith and Jagger at his most waspish and sardonic. Bill and Charlie, meanwhile, hold it down, much as they always did, with minimum fuss - Wyman’s discreet but melodious bassline snaking round Watts' syncopated rhythms.

The backend of the album moves through "Driving Me Too Hard" -can "Tumbling Dice" have its opening riff back, please? - and "Tell Me Straight”, Keith’s tender, whiskery ballad, towards "Sweet Sounds Of Heaven".

At over seven minutes. It’s roof-raising gospel soul - there’s brass, call-and- response vocals, Lady Gaga doing her best Merry Clayton and Stevie Wonder doing his best Stevie Wonder. It’s a bit "Shine A Light” 2023, with Watt throwing everything into the mix. Forget how good it might sound on your smart speaker - imagine it live in the O2 or at Madison Square Garden; it’ll blow the roof off.

Where to go after that? Mick and Keith, stripped back, on Muddy Waters’ "Rolling Stone Blues". It reminds us that Mick Jagger is a very good interpreter of other people's songs, much as the rest of Hackney Diamonds emphasizes that Mick Jagger is a very good Interpreter of Mick Jagger. If this was the last track on the final Rolling Stones album, it would be a lovely way to go - but apparently they recorded enough material for another album. Reborn again, the Stones kick back and celebrate.