The Rolling Stones today announced the release of their new 14-track studio album Foreign Tongues which will feature their longtime drummer Charlie Watts captured during one of his final recording sessions before passing in 2021.
Additional contributions come from guest artists including Steve Winwood, Paul McCartney, The Cure’s Robert Smith and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The album drops July 10 from Capitol Records. It comes less than three years after the band’s Grammy Award-winning Hackney Diamonds, which topped charts worldwide and achieved multi-platinum success.
Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood are set to attend a media launch for Foreign Tongues later today in Brooklyn, New York.
The new album will be introduced by the upbeat lead single “In the Stars,” released digitally on May 5 alongside the album’s opening track “Rough and Twisted.” (“In The Stars” receives a physical release on May 15.)
The Stones have recently been building up to today’s announcement, including with the limited white label release of the track “Rough and Twisted” only on vinyl under the band name The Cockroaches.
Foreign Tongues was recorded in under a month at Metropolis Studios in West London, with Jagger, Richards and Wood reuniting with Grammy-winning producer Andrew Watt, who also helmed Hackney Diamonds. In addition to the three original members of the group, the album features their core collaborators Darryl Jones, Matt Clifford and Steve Jordan.
“I love doing these recording sessions in London at Metropolis,” Jagger said in a 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.”
Said Richards, “The Foreign Tongues album has a continuity from Hackney Diamonds and it was great to be working in London again, and to have that London vibe around us. It was a month of concentrated punch. To me, it’s all about the enjoyment of it. I’m blessed to be able to do this and long may it last.”
“The atmosphere in the room was so creative,” Wood said, “and the whole band was on top form throughout the whole process. Very often we nailed it on the first take. I hope everyone loves it.”
The album’s cover artwork is a painting created by American artist Nathaniel Mary Quinn who called the assignment “a dialogue with one of the most enduring forces in cultural history”
Foreign Tongues will be available on a wide range of formats, including CD, deluxe CD editions, cassette, multiple vinyl variants (standard and limited color pressings), exclusive retailer editions, and special box sets, alongside the single ‘In The Stars’ on CD and vinyl formats.