Rolling Stones are back with new album 'Hackney Diamonds'

English rock band the Rolling Stones announced on Wednesday, 6 September, the release date of Hackney Diamonds, their first album of original music in 18 years. It will be the first album the band has recorded without drummer Charlie Watts, who died in 2021.

The three surviving Stones — Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood — came to east London's Hackney district to present 'Angry', the first single of the new album, the title of which refers to broken glass after a robbery.

"We're here to present our new single, which is called 'Angry', and the video of it, and 'Angry' is the first single from our new album, which is called Hackney Diamonds, which is why we are in Hackney, and which comes out on October 20," 80-year-old frontman Mick Jagger told US talk show host Jimmy Fallon in a livestream broadcast.

Music fans have been waiting for the announcement ever since a cryptic advert appeared in a local newspaper last month, referencing some of the Stones' biggest tracks and the name of the new album.

How will the album sound?

According to Jagger, Hackney Diamonds is "a mixture" of music, and not all the songs are "furious". The album also contains "love songs, ballads, country-type" sounds, he said.

Jagger joked that the reason the band hadn't recorded an album in almost two decades was laziness. "I don't want to be big-headed but we wouldn't have put this album out if we hadn't really liked it," he said.

Recorded in December and January at studios around the world, the album sees the Stones team up with Grammy-winning producer Andrew Watt.

It features drummer Steve Jordan on 10 of the 12 tracks in Watts's place. The other two songs were recorded in 2019 with Watts. Former Stone Bill Wyman also puts in an appearance on one track.

The Rolling Stones were formed in London in 1962 and became one of the leading lights of the 1960s global boom in British music that began with Beatlemania—the rapid international success of their great northern rivals from Liverpool, the Beatles.

Their first album, The Rolling Stones, was released in 1964 and became a big hit in Great Britain.

Now in 2023, the Stones show no sign of planning to retire. Last year, the band had its 60th anniversary European tour.