The Rolling Stones' Studio Albums

[The Picnic Wasp]

.. which makes me think of something. Keith gets a solo piece, or sometimes two or even three on every Stones record. Ronnie, never. He's co-written a few songs, he plays guitar, he plays bass sometimes, that's about it.

One thing that this exercise of listening to all the Stones albums has made me realise is that Ronnie Wood sold out his career. He's been a part of the band since 1976 and a proper financial partner since 1990 but he's never been an equal member.

Of course he's had some solo projects but he deserved a much more prominent place in the musical landscape of the last four or five decades than he settled for. But he must have made a truckload of money.

This makes me think that there must be a time in the lives of most talented artists, that selling out if a possibility, is an attractive prospect. From my younger days of meagre creativity by comparison to those I idolise, I knew when a spark had extinguished. Not totally, but the frequency of inspirational, beautiful moments in my life of limited talent musical and lyrical writing seemed to lessen progressively from about mid thirties onwards. If offered an opportunity in the mechanics of a successful ongoing force in the industry, I would have suffered any discomfort to hang onto the rope trailing behind its wake. Ronnie is still held in high regard for his current role in the band and for what he has achieved in the past, and being brutal, how much musical ambition would you need to join the Stones in any case? They are a bit more KFC than Michelin.

[Slim]

Somehow it's two-and-a-half years now since the last Stones album already. In the Rolling Stones album release timescale of course, that's no time at all - the one that preceded it came out in 2016.

And yet - another one, entitled Foreign Tongues is due out in July. This is the first single.

The last album sounded a bit fake to me. I was highly suspicious that Bill Wyman, on his guest appearance, was now a tighter player than he ever was in the '70s or '80s.

What happened, I later discovered, was that the performances on the record were "quantised". Retimed, if you like. Every note snapped to a rhythmic grid by a computer. Presumably these very old men just do not have the energy or mojo to play in time any more. In addition Jagger's voice was processed, pitch-corrected and polished - possibly partly by AI. I wouldn't be surprised if session players did some of the guitar parts, as well.

No doubt this new album will be similarly "assisted". A sort of halfway house between natural performances and AI.

Of course studio trickery has gone on for as long as there have been studios - vocals assembled from the best parts of several different takes, bum guitar notes dropped out, guitar solos stitched together on a computer. Where do you draw the line?

Well, if you're like me, somwhere south of here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktbxQ2WZrXw

Embedding disabled. It's all AI.

[Slim]

25: Foreign Tongues (July 2026)

Difficult to know how to assess this album really. It's remarkable that three men with a combined age of 243 can make a decent bluesy rock album, and this certainly is, superficially anyway, a decent record.

But how much help have they had from producer Andrew Watt? These performances sound tight, energetic, sometimes upbeat - but quite honestly I think we're listening to a clever producer making expert use of a digital toolkit, here. These tunes have been built, copied and pasted on a computer screen. In some cases I'd guess that for any given tune, Watt captured a few dozen riffs from Keith or Ronnie, pinned down the best effort then looped it round in his software to make a whole verse out of it, syncing it to the beat with nanosecond precision.

Watt plays guitar himself on half the tracks, which I think is a bit of a tell.

The way Keith and Ronnie used to play - weaving around each other, around the beat, pushing it, dragging it.. that loose human groove - gone.

Mick's voice sounds fine, but again I assume it's time and pitch corrected.

Still - the songs are fine, nothing inspiring but certainly OK. And if the swagger and character of years gone by has gone, it's a perfectly adequate, radio-friendly album. Sometimes it feels a bit too upbeat, if anything. Never Wanna Lose You for example almost has a disco beat. You wish it had been slowed down, given a bit of groove and personality. But can they even do that now?

Best tune by far is a cover of Amy Winehouse's You Know I'm No Good, which is somehow twenty years old now. But it adds nothing to the original, it only detracts from it. It was never one of Amy's better tunes anyway.

Keef's solo spot, Some Of Us is a decent second. I quite liked it.

[The Picnic Wasp]

Interesting review which makes me want to have a listen. I've never been a big Stones fan but always mildly appreciated them and respected their work. Given their age I'd imagine a producer's younger hearing would be most welcome and necessary as would his playing skills. Their live looseness on stage must be getting to the realms of slackness in the studio, so it must be a strong temptation to deliver a polished piece of work, even if jiggery poker is involved.

A 64 year music career with only five strings on your guitar. Not bad!