When you’ve come back as successfully as the Stones did with Hackney Diamonds, what exactly do you do for an encore? Its renewed urgency, communal goodwill and, more importantly, the strongest Stones music in years made it a hard act to follow. The temptation to deliver a straight- forward sequel must have been strong. Indeed, there are superficial links with Foreign Tongues: returning producer Andrew Watt and a clutch of songs begun during those 2023 sessions. But while Hackney Diamonds was about return and resurgence, its successor offers something more nuanced. Above all, the Stones’ 25th studio album carries an unforced pleasure in playing together – striking in a band that might easily have grown weary of both the music and each other.

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