Written by The Rolling Stones will release their 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues, on July 10 via Polydor/Universal Music. And producer Andrew Watt says that the record is “rawer and liver and jammier” than the group’s 24th album, Hackney Diamonds, which he also produced for the band.
Telling The Telegraph newspaper that working with Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood on Hackney Diamonds was “my dreams coming true”, he states that the 2023 album has “a special place in my heart”.
“But I like this one even more,” he says. “It’s rawer and liver and jammier and – wait till you hear the shit Keith’s playing. It’s unbelievable.”
“Really, it’s the most fun thing in the world,” Watt says of working with the rock legends. “There’s never a single day that I’d go into the studio and not be like, I’m going to see the fucking Rolling Stones play!”
Foreign Tongues will feature cameo appearances by Paul McCartney, Robert Smith from The Cure, Steve Winwood and more. It was recorded in less than one month at Metropolis Studios in west London.
“I love doing these recording sessions in London at Metropolis,” Mick Jagger said in a press statement. “It was a very intense few weeks recording Foreign Tongues. We had 14 great tracks and we went as fast as we could. I like the room there as it’s not too big so you can feel the passion in the room from everyone.”
The revelation that The Cure’s frontman Robert Smith guests on the record came as something of a surprise to music fans when the details of the record were announced.
At a press event in New York on May 5, Mick Jagger explained how the collaboration came about.
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“I turned up one day to do my vocals in London, and there’s this bloke standing there with his back to me with this long gown on,” Jagger said. “And when he turned around, he was covered in lipstick. And I said – I’d never met him before – You’re Robert Smith of The Cure! He said, ‘Yeah!’ And I said, Well, while you’re here then, you better go and do something.”
“That’s how collaborations work sometimes,” Jagger admitted.
