Two of its quieter moments steal the show however: a cover of Muddy Waters’ Rollin’ Stone – titled Rolling Stone Blues – featuring only Keith Richards and Mick Jagger and Dreamy Skies, a bittersweet country turn whose Dylanesque weariness provides a welcome respite from all the precision-tooled vim.
Full of defiant brio and what you might charitably call unreconstructed Stonesiness – the Sydney Sweeney-starring video for Angry is a case in point the LP’s Bill Wyman cameo is another – Hackney Diamonds is packed with convincing echoes of the band in its pomp.
“Hackney diamonds” are the broken glass shards left after a smash and grab, but muscular US producer Andrew Watt ensures Hackney Diamonds is a far more polished-sounding record than its insalubrious title would suggest. On their first album of originals since 2005, the Rolling Stones walk a tightrope between slick modernity and the quaint notion that their music still packs any grit.