The Stones are back. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and, for one track, the late Charlie Watts (two tracks if you get the bonus track "Bad Luck Hideaway" offered by iTunes). FOREIGN TONGUES is the band's 25th studio album. They came up in the early sixties. Of their peer group, Diana Ross' THANK YOU was her 25th album -- 25th solo studio album. She also has 18 studio albums with the Supremes for a total of 43 studio albums. Paul McCartney has 27 studio albums but he has 12 studio albums with the Beatles (I'm using the UK versions, not the American versions which chopped up the early albums to reassemble them for US listeners). So that's 39 studio albums that Paul's worked on since the 60s, 43 that Diana's done and 25 that the Stones have done.
So the Stones have some catching up to do. And with FOREIGN TONGUES, they are.
"Jealous Lover" and "Never Wanna Lose You" or classic Stones' tracks. The former is in "Hey You Get Off Of My Cloud" tradition lyrically while vocally Mick's using that falsetto on the verses that he sported in "Emotional Rescue" and "Beast of Burden." "Never Wanna Lose You" is one of those fast tempo ballads that the Stones have always been able to carry off.
"Mr. Charm" takes a hammer to the fake image of Elon Musk. "Covered In You" takes on the world and a relationship. But the real prize here may be the band's cover of Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good."
The Stones have done some solid covers over the years -- think "Harlem Shuffle," "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)," "Time Is On My Side" and "It's All Over Now" among them -- and "You Know I'm No Good" stands with the best of them. This is a solid album. So solid that Mick can let Keith sing lead on "Some Of Us" and not fear being upstaged. Keith delivers on the song.
But this album contains so many moments of brilliance that Mick knows there's more than enough to go around. FOREIGN TONGUES is a great Stones' album.
In "Back In Your Life," Mick wonders, "Is this how our story will end?" If it did, the Stones would be going out stronger than ever.
