Rolling Stones' 'Foreign Tongues': Neither tongue-tied nor tongue hanging out

A new Stones album-or even a song-may have all the vibes of income-tax returns: something that the 82-year-olds Keith and Mick, with stripling Ron (he's 79), file regularly to show that they're still alive and earning a living. But forget the whole Strolling Bones© legacy shebang for the one hour that is the band's latest record, Foreign Tongues.

The crackle and stomp of the opening track 'Rough and Twisted' comes cranked up like a vodka-infused version of 'Crossroads,' that Robert Johnson classic. Ronnie's wailing slide guitar brings the Delta blues muddily into Keith's King's Cross chops. Jagger's vocals and harmonica are remarkably high on mojo-unlike when he was trying too hard in their 2023 album Hackney Diamonds.

'In the Stars' has a Keef riff running across the line. The chord changes are Coldplay-pretty, and I mean that as a compliment. But it's Jagger's ululations that hold ear and attention. The lights dim as we are taken to Falsetto Boogie Town. Jagger tries to channel Stones' 70s-era 'Emotional Rescue'. Somehow it comes across as a Scissor Sisters cover.


'Mr Charm' has more imported oomph in it, but the old 'I'm so hot for her,/ I'm so hot for her/ I'm so hot for her and she's so cold' feel from the 1980 track 'She's So Cold' doesn't manage to thaw this kulfi. One wishes the words, 'Who would you really trust? / Is it Boeing, is it Nasa/ Is it mad mogul Mr Musk?' were put to better use.

Classic rock'n'roll rears its jitterbug head in 'Divine Intervention.' At last we're in a Stones' ska session with our feet shaking without having to ask them to shake. Country tones wash 'Ringing Hollow,' the languid notes a welcome change, which even the lyrics-'And there's always a scoundrel/Trying to whip up the crowd'-seem to acknowledge. This is a register that the Stones remain delightfully impeccable in-reflective, pint'n'porch music.

The hormonal shuffle is epiduraled back in 'Never Want to Lose You.' But the chorus here sounds like the band was thinking of another song and gave up on the bridge, throwing in a disco beat instead. 'Hit Me in the Head' goes turbo. And if it wasn't for the fact that I was sober as cucumber in prasad, I would have thought, 'What's Def Leppard doing in this album?'

Then we have a 21st c. classic reworked by our 20th c. masters-Jagger taking a crack at Amy Winehouse's glorious 2006 'You Know I'm No Good'. It's competent enough. But you'd think it's a version of a Winehouse cover of a Stones song. A bit of bleach to black.

'Some of Us' that follows holds you. Not too tight, but just right. Keith's singing is tender, and brittle. 'You pull the heart right out of me/ You know that we can't have everything/ Some of us are on our knees,' conjures up a fireplace to throw shot glasses into one by one. 'Covered In You' has Jagger rhyming and jiving-sounding eerily like Elton John as he starts-mixing up a bit of personal with the political ('I wake up sick and tired of all these autocrats...With their missiles on parade and they're wreathed in gold brocade). Best to move along.

'Side Effects' is up-tempo, despite being about prescription pills, and not the sort of stuff the boys once engaged in. 'Back in Life,' a bar-is-shutting track, gets things delicate. But the album closes with genuine gusto, a 1958 Chuck Berry rock'n'roller stripped down and injected with another round of Delta blues. The music is spirited, ghostly, with skirts flying in an abandoned dance hall that's suddenly filled and lit up.

Despite the likes of Paul McCartney (bass on 'Covered in You'), Steve Winwood (on organ and piano) and the Cure's Robert Smith (backing vocals in 'Never Wanna Lose You') being carted in, Foreign Tongues won't get you tongue-tied, or have your tongue hanging out. At its best, it'll make you wish that the greatest rock'n'roll band did more country and blues. And, yeah, straight-up rock'n'roll.