McCartney! Gaga! Wonder! The Rolling Stones reveal star-studded rollcall for 'Hackney Diamonds'

The band pose for photographers at the press conference for the launch of the new Rolling Stones album 'Hackney Diamonds' on 6 Sept. 2023 in London. - Copyright Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP

By David Mouriquand

Published on 15/09/2023 - 14:26

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The band's 24th album, out next month, features an impressive line-up of collaborators...

The new Rolling Stones album is coming...

It’s a momentous occasion, as there hasn’t been an album of original Stones songs in 18 years.

The 24th album from Mick Jagger (80), Keith Richards (79) and Ronnie Wood (76), ‘ Hackney Diamonds ’ - a slang term for broken glass - hits the shelves next month, on 20 October.

The lead single ‘Angry’ already brought out the big guns by casting actress Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria, The White Lotus, Reality), who is living her best life on the back seat of a car driving down the Sunset Strip while Rolling Stones billboards, each representing a different Stones era, come to life.

The song itself is fine, a pretty standard Stones cut that does the job but never quite lodges itself into your brain like you’d hope it would. Still, Mick Jagger has promised that the rest of the album will feature love songs, country tunes, ballads and gospel. So there’s still every reason to get excited.

Adding to this sense of excitement is the star-studded rollcall of guests on the album, which have now been revealed.

They include Elton John, who plays piano on two tracks (‘Get Close’ and ‘Live By The Sword’), Lady Gaga on vocals on ‘Sweet Sound of Heaven’, and former Beatles singer Paul McCartney, who plays bass on ‘Bite My Head Off’.

The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, together at last. What a time to be alive.

As if that wasn’t enticing enough, Stevie Wonder will also feature on ‘Sweet Sounds of Heaven’.

'Hackney Diamonds' is the band’s first album of original songs since the release of ‘A Bigger Bang’ in 2005. Their previous album, ‘Blue and Lonesome’, seven years ago, was a record of blues covers. It is also the band’s first release since the death of drummer Charlie Watts in 2021. Watts features on two tracks - ‘Mess It Up’ and ‘Live By The Sword’ - while former Stones bassist Bill Wyman plays on the former.

The full tracklist of Hackney Diamonds is as follows: