The Rolling Stones announce ‘Foreign Tongues,’ out July 10, featuring Paul McCartney, Robert Smith, Charlie Watts and producer Andrew Watt
The Rolling Stones are back, and they did not ease into it. On May 5, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ronnie Wood gathered inside the converted Williams burgh Savings Bank in Brooklyn to officially announce “Foreign Tongues,” their 25th studio album, due July 10 via Capitol Records. Hosted by Conan O’Brien and attended by the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Christie Brinkley, the launch event confirmed what Ronnie Wood had quietly promised the world last September, when he told UK publication The Sun: “Yes, you will be getting a new album next year. It is done.”
The 14-track record follows “Hackney Diamonds” by less than three years, a remarkably swift turnaround that the band managed by recording the entire album in under a month at Metropolis Studios in West London. The sessions reunite the trio with Grammy-winning producer Andrew Watt, who helmed “Hackney Diamonds” and whose instinct for focused, high-energy production keeps the Stones sounding urgent without artificially polishing the grit out of them. O’Brien drew immediate comparisons at the Brooklyn event to “Exile on Main Street,” pointing to the record’s raw immediacy. “It was a month of concentrated punch,” Keith Richards said in the announcement. “To me, it’s all about the enjoyment of it.”
A Murderer’s Row of Guest Appearances
The band’s core lineup on “Foreign Tongues” expands beyond Jagger, Richards, and Wood to include bassist Darryl Jones, keyboardist Matt Clifford, and drummer Steve Jordan. But the guest contributions are what will dominate headlines. Paul McCartney, who also appeared on “Hackney Diamonds,” is back. The Cure’s Robert Smith, Steve Winwood, and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers round out a list that crosses genre lines without feeling like a stunt. “I think Paul really wanted to jump in there,” Jagger said at the Brooklyn launch. “There was no intimidation. He wanted to play with the band.”
The album’s most emotionally resonant moment is one that was never planned as a promotional angle. A special appearance from the late Charlie Watts, captured during one of his final recording sessions before his passing in August 2021, has been woven into the record, giving “Foreign Tongues” a weight that no guest list alone could provide.
From the Cockroaches to Capitol Records
The campaign behind “Foreign Tongues” was among the more inventive slow-burn rollouts in recent memory. The Stones released a limited white label vinyl pressing of the album’s opening track “Rough and Twisted” under the pseudonym the Cockroaches, distributing just 1,000 copies to select record stores. Billboards soon appeared in major cities worldwide, featuring the band’s iconic mouth-and-tongue logo alongside the words “Foreign Tongues” translated into languages including Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Korean, and French.
The Stones’ official website was simultaneously updated with video clips styled to look like studio surveillance footage. The two tracks now available give a clear sense of the album’s range. “Rough and Twisted” is a bluesy, boot-stomping rocker driven by slide guitar, boogie-woogie piano, and saxophone, with Jagger bellowing and blowing harmonica in the tradition of the early ’70s Stones. “In the Stars,” the official lead single, opens as a pop-rock song before the chorus expands into something less expected: layered backing vocals and a melodic piano line that, according to one UK critic, carries “a devil-may-care spirit” alongside “a killer riff.”
The album’s cover artwork, a painting by American artist Nathaniel Mary Quinn, closes the loop. “Creating the album cover for the Rolling Stones is an artistic honor,” Quinn said, “a dialogue with one of the most enduring forces in cultural history.” It would be hard to argue with him.
