Rolling Stones/ Hackney Diamonds

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR 

The Rolling Stones/ Hackney Diamonds

Genre: Rock

Label: Polydor Records

Rating: ****

Uh-one, uh-two, drums, uh-one-two-three-go, guitars, Mick Jagger sings, "Don't get angry with me, I never caused you no pain, I won't be angry with you, but I can't see straight, yeah". The song is called 'Angry' and in two minutes, you have the Keith Richards electric guitar razzle-dazzle, and the line, "I'm still taking the pills, and I'm off to Brazil", a throwback to past debauchery.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back the Rolling Stones, on their 26th US and 24th UK release. Hackney Diamonds, a title inspired by East London slang for broken glass, comes 18 years after A Bigger Bang, their last album of all-new material. Though they did the blues cover album Blue & Lonesome in the interim, and lost drummer Charlie Watts two years ago, this was the comeback studio album fans were waiting for. Live, the bad boys of rock n' roll never went away.

Watts is credited on two tracks - 'Mess It Up' and the multi-starrer 'Live By The Sword', which features Elton John on piano and former Stones bassist Bill Wyman. Elsewhere, Steve Jordan takes over on drums, and celebrity guests include Paul McCartney (bass on 'Bite My Head Off') and Stevie Wonder (dreamlike piano on 'Sweet Sounds Of Heaven', a gospel-meets-rock-meets-soul-meets-whatever number featuring duet vocals and uncontrolled screams by Lady Gaga).

On Hackney Diamonds, the Stones just continue from their old glory, though there are times when Jagger just seems a fraction less ungentlemanly. At 80, that's justified, one guesses. The album begins with two typically Stonesy tunes - foot-tapping rock n' rollers backed by ordinary lyrics and fabulous riffs by Richards and Ronnie Wood. Songwriting for both are co-credited to producer Andrew Watt, along with Jagger-Richards. 'Angry' is followed by the saxophone-peppered 'Get Close', with Jagger rambling. "I wanna get close to you, I wanna get close to you, I wanna get high on you". Poetry?*!

Of course, over the years, the Stones have always shown a special knack for presenting slower beauties, as they did years ago with 'Angie', 'Wild Horses' and 'As Tears Go By'. Here, they come close, to a great extent, with 'Dreamy Skies', a beauty of a track which talks of a desire to escape from routine. Jagger thus talks of going "to a place where no one can call, and I won't hear the sirens or the maddening crowds, just the bark of a fox and the hoot of an owl, ain't got no connections or a satellite phone, I'm avoiding the pictures and the people back home, and I just got to break free from it all".

There's another slow beauty in 'Depending On You', which has a certain lyrical charm as it describes a girl finding another man. "Now she's giving my loving to somebody new, I invented the game but I lost like a fool", sings Jagger.

Besides Lady Gaga's appearance, a couple of surprises are left for the end. Richards takes over vocal duties on 'Tell Me Straight', which seeks honesty while ending a relationship. And finally, there's 'Rolling Stone Blues', a fresh take on the Muddy Waters classic which inspired the Stones to take their name. "Well, I wish I was a catfish, swimming in the deep blue sea, I would have all you good looking women, fishing after me, fishing after me", goes the twang, as Jagger's harmonica is on some other level here.

After their cover of the Bob Dylan hit 'Like A Rolling Stone' in the 1995 album Stripped, this is another brilliant cover of a song with the band's name in the title. "You got a boy child coming, he's gonna be, he's gonna be a rolling stone, he's gonna be a rolling stone"... "oh how does it feeeeellll...?"