The Rolling Stones - Foreign Tongues (2026) [Vinyl]

Review by Mark Deming

Reliably placed rumors have had the Rolling Stones breaking up since the mid-'80s and the contentious Dirty Work sessions, and in the 2020s, with Charlie Watts, the band's heartbeat, dead, and founding members Mick Jagger and Keith Richards both in their eighties, the notion that the Stones might finally give up seems increasingly plausible. But these grizzled survivors are still kicking up dust and want us to know they can cut the mustard. After 2016's raw and bluesy Blue & Lonesome and 2023's lively, eclectic Hackney Diamonds, 2026's Foreign Tongues demonstrates they can knock out an energetic, entertaining album with ease. It easily bests anything they cut in the 1990s, and if beating out Voodoo Lounge or Bridges to Babylon isn't much to brag about, it shows Jagger, Richards, Ron Wood, and their various helpers are still excited about being the Rolling Stones, and they're having fun with it, which wasn't the case through much of the '90s and 2000s. Foreign Tongues was knocked out in just a few weeks with producer Andrew Watt (who also worked on Hackney Diamonds), and it sounds admirably live, with Jagger counting off the band on many cuts, and the interaction between Richards' and Wood's guitars, their lingua franca since Some Girls in 1978, connects with a playful swagger that's raucous and satisfying. "Hit Me in the Head" was recorded shortly before Charlie Watts' passing, and his drumming helps make it the album's hardest-rocking track; elsewhere, Steve Jordan handles the drumming, and matches Watts' implacable backbeat with remarkable accuracy, while bassist Darryl Jones fills out the bottom end with sublime simplicity. Steve Winwood handles keyboards on most of the tracks, adding a welcome soulful touch, and while much was made of the fact Robert Smith of the Cure and Paul McCartney both sit in on the sessions, they're practically inaudible, wisely choosing not to upstage the stars of the show (neither does Bruno Mars, who is credited with cowbell on "Never Wanna Lose You"). And Mick Jagger, determined as always to convince us he has found the fountain of youth, somehow seems believable as a skirt-chasing roué and/or a jilted lover, and seems responsible for the (relatively) up-to-date R&B touches on "Jealous Lover" (where he pulls out his "Emotional Rescue" falsetto). He's also capable of sounding genuinely heartsick on the country-accented "Ringing Hollow," and sassy enough on a cover of Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good" to own it. The closing cover of Chuck Berry's "Beautiful Delilah" strips the tune down to an acoustic country blues, with just Jagger and Richards making the track sound ghostly and thrilling. Foreign Tongues finds the Rolling Stones swinging hard, drawing sweat, and sounding like they still have some business calling themselves the world's greatest rock & roll band, which even they probably never expected to happen when they cut their debut 60 years ago. Could they go on forever? This album is just good enough to make you imagine they could.