Rolling Stones return with new album featuring star-studded line-up

The Rolling Stones have released a new studio album, Foreign Tongues, marking their 25th record and extending a career spanning more than six decades.

The album was produced by Andrew Watt, who also worked on the band’s 2023 Grammy-winning release Hackney Diamonds. As with that record, Foreign Tongues features contributions from the band’s late drummer Charlie Watts, drawn from one of his final recording sessions before his death in 2021, as per foreign media reports.

The album includes a number of high-profile guest appearances, including Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, Robert Smith of The Cure, and Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers. The record also features a surprise cameo by Bruno Mars on cowbell.

Speculation about a new Stones release began in February, when the band issued the track “Rough and Twisted” as a white-label vinyl under the pseudonym The Cockroaches.

The band formally unveiled the album at a launch event in May, alongside the release of the lead single “In the Stars.” Subsequent singles included “Jealous Lover,” featuring Winwood on organ, and “Divine Intervention,” which includes Winwood on piano and organ and Robert Smith on guitar.

Frontman Mick Jagger said releasing new music remains a distinctive experience even after decades in the industry.

“I like the thing of when you’ve got a song that it’s in your head and you hear it in a certain way and then when it’s done, it’s like how you imagined only much better,” he told ABC Audio at the May event.

Guitarist Ronnie Wood added that recording continues to be central to the band’s identity.

“We want to keep that spirit going of instantaneous reactions, and the way we interpret a song and keep it fresh,” he said. He noted that when songs are placed on an album, “it’s like the seed has grown a little bit, but the tree comes in full bloom over the years when they’re played live.”

By Tamilla Hasanova