Counting The Rolling Stones out is never a good bet. Even though it’s been eighteen years since their last album of new material and even longer since they’ve put out something compelling, “Hackney Diamonds” is the return to form that no one ever expected.

Mick Jagger is 80 years old, Keith Richards is almost that ancient but the new album arrives when rock and roll itself is threatened with extinction and the blast they give, with the help of friends like Lady Gaga, Elton John and Paul McCartney, comes just in time to declare that this genre still has something to say.

Two of the songs feature the late Charlie Watts and one even features Bill Wyman on bass. Mick Jagger shows that he still has the gravitas to adjust his vocal style to punk, country, soul and the straight ahead rock and roll that they practically invented.

There’s a nod to their beginnings on the last track when they record for the first time the Muddy Waters song they named themselves after. Whether any of these songs end up making their concert repertoire, which has been set for over forty years, remains to be seen but just hearing them sound more engaged then they have in a long time is worth it.  

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