Hmmmm...can it really be a B-sides post if I've not actually listened to the album on vinyl (that was the whole point, after all)?? Welp, since I made up the theme, I've decided can bend the rules. Really, I just wanted an excuse to talk about how much I like the second half of the Rolling Stones' new album:
Album art impressions: startlingly modern, yet unmistakably Stones (much like the music production itself!)
So, I listened to the first 5 tracks of Hackney Diamonds on a walk home the other week, and let's just say my reaction was...lukewarm. To my ears, the album sounded poppy and overproduced, with some cool Stones riffs unfortunately overpowered by cringey lyrics—seemingly destined for just a couple listens from me. But whatevs, that's been the case for a lot of Paul and Ringo's newest stuff too (sorry, lads) and I've come to expect it. I'm just glad they're still making music and enjoying it, even if it's not for me.
BUT THEN, later on, I listened to track 6 onwards and HOLY MOLY they are pretty much all bangers! If you swap "Mess It Up" with "Dreamy Skies", I would listen to the back half of this album over and over and over, preferably on a long car ride on a dusty interstate highway, on rotation with Exile on Main Street and Sticky Fingers.
"Dreamy Skies"—despite its title sounding like an Instagram camera effect—is such a treat! Instrumentally, it's vintage, distilled Stones, featuring Ronnie's lovely slide guitar in the style of "No Expectations". The delivery of the "got to get away from it all" line sounds un-coincidentally similar to the "can't break free from it all" lyric in "Short and Curlies" (a silly theory bolstered by the hot toddy I'm drinking right now: is this the character from "Short and Curlies" finally getting away, 50 years later??). Anyway, I'm a big fan.
"Live By The Sword" is just a pure rock & roll romp and I'm not mad about it. It's also one of Charlie's last recorded songs. 😢 Like the others, the lyrics get silly at times, and I'm still not used to modern producing putting Mick's voice so up close and personal, but I'm so impressed that his vocals can still rip so hard at 80. How, Mick, how?!
I looOOOoove "Driving Me Too Hard". There is a Stones genre that I like to think of as anthemic guitary pop rock, Ã la "Mixed Emotions" and "Stealing My Heart", and this song falls right into that bucket. It's got rock-solid Keef guitar as its foundation, an earworm of a melodic line, and a chorus with unnecessarily pretty harmonies. I'm a sucker for it, and I don't care!
🚨 KEEF BALLAD ALERT 🚨: "Tell Me Straight" sounds like it belongs smack in the middle of my Keef mix CD, the one that sang me to sleep every night the summer of 2003. I love how his songs are often the much-needed comedown after Mick's nonstop energy, like a cozy nightcap. They are always such a vibe, and they just work so well.
"Sweet Sounds of Heaven" is already being lauded as the best song on the album and one of the best Stones song in existence and I wholeheartedly agree. I went to YouTube hoping for a decent lyric or music video (as long as it's not one more sexy city woman video), and was overjoyed to find this live performance from NYC last month:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt3ISLkIS38
How lucky we are that Mick Jagger and Lady Gaga exist in the same timeline. They are perfect together. 🤩
Finally, with "Rolling Stone Blues", the Stones would like to remind us that they are still an amazing blues band. Covering the Muddy Waters song that gave them their name, the Stones end Hackney Diamonds tastefully and perfectly.
As one review somewhere said it, this album did not have to be this good! But I'm so glad it is. (The 2nd half, at least...I'll have to give Side A another go after I've let it simmer for a while.) Thanks Mick! Thanks Keith! Thanks Ronnie! Miss u, Charlie!!