True Thoughts About Foreign Tongues

Where we stand on the new Stones LP

July 10, 2026July 15, 2026 Ron Hart 1 Comment 2026, Andrew Watt, Bruno Mars, Capitol Records, Chad Smith, Foreign Tongues, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Robert Smith, Ron Wood, Steve Winwood, The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones *Foreign Tongues*, Capitol Records 2026

I’ve been writing about the Stones since I was in high school when I tried to pass off the lyrics to “Mixed Emotions” as poetry for a 10th grade English assignment.

So it’s nothing short of a miracle that the surviving members of the band — Mick, Keith and Ronnie, though former bassist Bill Wyman and ex-guitarist Mick Taylor are both still alive and well as well — can still rustle up anticipation for a new studio album the way they have with the release of Foreign Tongues, which was released today all over the globe.

VIDEO: The Rolling Stones “Jealous Lover”

With its provocative title and beautifully ugly cover art, this follow-up to 2023’s Hackney Diamonds has all the hallmarks of a classic Stones album. And while many are sour on producer Andrew Watt’s compressed polish across these 14 new songs, those critics seem to overlook the actual songcraft on display here.

In many ways, Tongues succeeds Hackney Diamonds with stronger songs and a more powerful delivery, similar to the way they followed up 1986’s Dirty Work with 1989’s Steel Wheels. And while there’s a wild parade of guests making appearances here — including Robert Smith of The Cure playing guitars and synths on “Divine Intervention” and “Never Wanna Lose You” (which also includes Bruno Mars on cowbell), Steve Winwood on keys across the majority of the album, Paul McCartney’s signature bass on “Covered In You” and Chad Smith playing bass drum on the closing cover of Chuck Berry’s “Beautiful Delilah” — nobody on hand outshines the core trio in terms of their performances here.

VIDEO: The Rolling Stones “In The Stars”

Nobody can conjure up guitar riffs and licks like Keith Richards and Ron Wood. Even in their old age, songs like “Rough & Twisted,” “In The Stars” and “Hit Me in the Head” (featuring drums from the late Charlie Watts) are as tasty as anything the Stones have done in 40 years. “Jealous Lover” revisits the slinky soul of the Black and Blue/Some Girls era, while “Ringing Hollow” flexes both the band’s country-rock and political muscles as Jagger sings, “Lady Liberty don’t look so good when she’s wearing a scowl.” Elsewhere, he takes a shot at Elon Musk and his dollar hoarding on the driving “Mr Charm” where he’s like, “Life’s too short for just making money.”

VIDEO: The Rolling Stones “Mr Charm”

“Never Wanna Lose You” is classic Stones through and through, with its “Rock and a Hard Place”-style pacing and soulful background vocals, while “Divine Intervention” is miraculous in hearing Robert Smith chop it up on guitar with Keith and Ron — the guitar jam we never knew we all needed. “Some of Us” is a consummate Keith Richards slow jam in the spirit of “Almost Hear You Sigh” and “The Worst,” and “Back In Your Life” proves the band is still very much capable of delivering a powerful rock ballad on the level of “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” with effortless aplomb. Then there’s that Amy Winehouse cover that somehow makes the song even better than our girl left it when she went to heaven, standing tall alongside that incredible version of The Temptations’ “Ain’t Too Proud To Beg” the Stones and Amy did back at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2007, which — of course — stems from the band’s studio version of the Motown standard on 1965’s Out of Our Heads.

VIDEO: The Rolling Stones “You Know I’m No Good”

So I’m sure there are going to be some Zoomers and Millennials declaring me “out of touch” for this review like when I was chided for giving a glowing write-up of Bridges to Babylon for SPIN Online or when I made A Bigger Bang my No. 1 album in the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll from 2005. I don’t care.

Foreign Tongues rocks in a way that only the best Stones albums do, and that’s the bottom line regardless of what the naysayers think.