Review overview Hackney Diamonds: ‘Best Stones album in thirty years’

This article was last updated on October 18, 2023

Canada: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…The Rolling Stones will release a new album on Friday. It is the first album with new work by the British band since 2005. NU.nl lists the reviews of Hackney Diamonds.

Trouw – 4 stars

“Now or never again, that seems to be the thinking. That urge to prove can be heard. Aided by a deadline and with 33-year-old producer Andrew Watt (of Post Malone, Eddie Vedder and Justin Bieber, among others) at the helm, there is spontaneity, energy and drive in the twelve songs.”

“It’s come full circle, and how. Hackney Diamonds is a big, pleasant surprise. Who would have expected that?”

Het Parool – gives no stars

“The three of them, the remaining Rolling Stones are now 235 years old, but flanked by their new drummer Steve Jordan, they sound as eager as a band that has to earn its first recording contract. This could easily be the best Stones record in more than thirty years are.”

“The only downside are the lyrics. Even faced with the death of a significant other, the Stones apparently did not do much introspection.”

de Volkskrant – 4 stars

“Mick Jagger has not sung so powerfully in years. As if something was finally at stake again. ‘Now I’m too young for dying and too old to lose’, he aptly sings in the beautifully arranged ballad Depending On You.”

“Here we go again, you may be thinking. For decades you have read that the new Stones album, whether it is called Steel Wheels (1989), Voodoo Lounge (1994) or A Bigger Bang (2005), is their best since Some Girls (1978) or, ahead, Tattoo You (1981). But on Hackney Diamonds you finally hear the intensity of yesteryear again.”

AD – 4 stars

“Jagger sounds like a young man with the flying hours of a veteran. The Stones do not go out of their way to prove themselves, they do not reinvent themselves, but play with the carefree relaxation of men who know exactly what they are good at. That makes Hackney Diamonds into an unpretentious, honest and wonderful record to listen to.”