Released - July 10, 2026 on Polydor Records in the UK and on Capitol Records in the U.S. Produced by Andrew Watt; except "Hit Me in the Head" produced by Don Was.

Personnel:

Mick Jagger - Lead and Backing Vocals; Harmonica; Percussion; Guitars
Keith Richards - Lead and Rhythm Guitars; Piano, Backing Vocals and Lead Vocal on "Some of Us".
Ronnie Wood - Lead, Rhythm, Slide, and Bass Guitars; Backing Vocals

Additional Personnel:

Charlie Watts, Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood; Steve Jordan, Matt Clifford, Benmont Tench, Darryl Jones, James King, Ben Waters, Robert Smith, Ron Blake, Bruno Mars, Chad Smith, Naaral, Porcha Clay.

All tracks written by Jagger–Richards, except where noted

(Click on song for lyrics and credits)

Preamble

Up until when I wrote a preamble to my review for the Alice Cooper group’s reunion album in 2025, I had never included or written such a thing before to an album review. But it worked there and I hope it works here too, since I want to be positive in my review that will follow this bit. But since it isn’t like I have Gasland anymore to write what I’m about to write here, that’s why a preamble is needed. So let me get this BS out of the way here, since I do indeed love the Stones new LP!

So, here’s my full bitch: I’ll start off with the album’s bonus song “Bad Luck Hideaway”. I’m just pissed off at the Stones since they made it almost impossible for most of their fans to hear this song unless they play a stupid game that I refuse to take part in to hear this song. Years ago, long before I retired; when I was an insider myself to the band, I would get advanced copies of their new songs, etc., and I wouldn’t ever miss out on anything like this. But that was then and this is now. Today I’m an old man in my 70s, like all of their original fans are today (okay yes, I know, some original fans are in their 80s plus, cool indeed), and Mick Jagger has flat out stated he don’t care for any old age group – even if he’s a part of this group and even older than myself! But no, I’m not gonna bend to the moronic rules that the Stones placed on their fans to hear this one song. While I want to hear it, deep down I don’t, not if they are gonna put their stupid rules on me or any of their other fans to hear it. Shame on Mick for doing this crap to us fans (he’s the one to blame here, not Keith Richards, as Mick’s the one in charge of the business side of the band!).

Now, Mick also stated some BS about being old – saying that there is "nothing good" about getting older, adding that the reason why was because you do not gain wisdom and instead forget everything (his words). Well, speak for yourself Jagger! While I do have some old age memory lapses myself (and hate them), I haven’t forgotten everything, sorry you have MJ, and I’ll add, I have gained new wisdom in my old age, so again – sad to hear that you haven’t Mick - and you proved it with your stupid comments on this! Old folks have enough problems in life to deal with and the last thing we need is Mick saying things like he did about us. It was us old farts who light-years ago – by supporting him and the band - made him the rich man he is today and the rich man he’s been for decades, so thank us for that instead of putting our age group down today with falsehoods and half-truths!

Finally, about the Stones phony AI video for the otherwise very cool song “In the Stars”, that make the Stones look like young kids, MJ says: “We had a lot of fun with that; it’s only the faces of the musicians that are different. They’re not fake people in a fake room; they’re all in a room, really playing together”. Sorry Mick, but you, Keith and Ron Wood are totally 100% fake and unreal in that video! Stop trying to be in your 20s again, you’re 60 plus years older than what you’re showing in the video and there’s no changing that fact! You aren't fooling any of your old fans; why do you feel the need to try to fool the younger ones?! Just try to be real for once Mick and accept what your age is today! Why are you so afraid of being old? You just put out some great new music, and that’s all you need to do to win over younger people – not a phony AI video! Young people aren’t that stupid today – at least I hope they’re not, anyway. Hell, one of my grandsons who lives with me and is 30 years old – has several college degrees; so he’s smarter than you are Mr. Jagger!... and after he saw that video his words to me was “That’s real sad, Mick must not like himself today, Gramps!”.

Okay, I’m over my anger towards MJ now. After all, he and his band have made me totally happy for so many years, so I forgive him, even if he doesn’t care for those of us in his own age group. I still love the new album, so now, let me write mostly nice things below about it in my review!

Foreign Tongues Album Review

First, Mick Jagger sounds great on this LP vocal wise, hard to believe his singing sounds so strong considering he recorded the album at 82 years old! Old age hasn’t affected him at all – well, at least not his singing voice anyway, and at such an advanced age, it does mess-up voices some for most old-timers.

The overall music played on this album is top-notched and very clean. Ron Wood plays most of the lead guitar parts on here and does a fantastic job of it! On the songs where Keith Richards plays some lead or weaves, he’s playing fine, too! Plus, Mick’s harp is on fire all over the album, it sounds so good that it’s perhaps his best harmonica playing ever heard on any Stones album, and yes, that’s saying a lot for a guy who’s been blowing harp for well over 60 years! Now, after noting all of that, I also must point out that along with some of the greatest music heard on a Stones LP in years, I can’t forget to talk about the drumming provided by Steve Jordan. He sounds so much like how Charlie Watts played; what a great choice to have him take over for Charlie, who you would think was almost impossible to replace! But if I recall, it was Charlie himself who recommended that Steve replace him when he knew he wouldn’t be around too much longer to play for the band anymore.

Now, I don’t usually comment on every single track when writing an album review, but for this album I will. So, going in the album’s order of which the 14 songs appear, I start off with….

00:00 Rough and Twisted – A great kick off song with great lyrics, and the old art of Stones guitar weaving is happening big time between Keith and Ronnie on this tune, with the weave here - especially early on in the song, sounding like it’s the best that the Richards/Wood weaving combo has ever played before! Really, overall this number is the best Stones’ guitar song in ages! Add to that MJ’s wonderful harp and Steve’s great drumming and this song is the best rocker on the album.

04:40 In the Stars - Other than its terrible video, which I won’t hold against this one, well this song is fantastic; with excellent vocals all around. This is the only track on the album where Keith plays lead guitar on (not counting his weaving parts on some of the songs) and a fine job by Mr. Riff-hard at that!

08:53 Jealous Lover – Strong falsetto vocals from Mick on this tune gives it a great soul sound, along with nice backing vocals overall to boot, and topped off by nicely written lyrics by MJ!

11:43 Mr. Charm – Becoming one of my favorite fast songs on the LP; to think when I first heard this one I didn’t even care for it, as it sounded too simple to me on first listen. But it has some very catchy lyrics which won me over pretty fast, indeed. In time, “Mr. Charm’s” rating could turn into a 10 perhaps, after I hear it more, guess time will tell!

17:17 Divine Intervention – Really, this one is just as good as “Mr. Charm” is! I just love how nicely it moves along and how Mick sings it. The more I hear this one, the more I like it, even if the song is supposedly about a coming apocalypse, which nobody can stop.

22:03 Ringing Hollow – A wonderful country number and the best overall song on the album! Some nice country guitar playing by Ron. “Ringing Hollow” is about the sad shape that the USA is in at the time of the album’s release in 2026, thanks to the authoritarian fascist and totally failing president trump. Yes indeed, Lady Liberty isn’t looking too good or well at all these days, and all the people on planet Earth who have a working brain knows it, other than the few who’s left in MAGA!

On sad note, it’s too bad that the Stones lyrics are still being censor in 2026, as this one song is - at least on one YouTube channel/page – r3Retron, so, please boycott this channel if you believe in freedom of speech for all!

27:22 Never Wanna Lose You – Very nicely sung vocals and written lyrics all around on this ditty. I’m starting to realize that this album contains the best Jagger written lyrics in years, if not decades!

31:52 Hit Me in the Head – Charlie Watts’s last Stones song. Well then again, maybe not, since you never know with the Stones and what they might find lying around in old studio outtakes one day; but this one is a nice rocker and a winner for sure. Contains a nice lead guitar played once again by Ronnie.

34:48 You Know I'm No Good – This Amy Winehouse cover sounds too much like the original to me, something the Stones have rarely ever done in the last 66 years of them being a band. But hell, I do like the MJ harmonica a lot on it! Still, it receives my lowest rating for any tune on the LP; but then again, one track had to be rated the lowest. But Amy’s original is flat out better than this one is.

39:44 Some of Us – So much better than Keith’s song from the last LP, but that one was totally lacking, IMO. While I’ve never cared for most crooner songs sung by most dudes, and with Keith’s vocals sounding very much different and not at its greatest in his later years, well, I still dig this song besides all that! He just makes this one work. I also dig the vocal harmony sung on here, but I’m not sure who’s singing it? It doesn’t sound like Jagger; yet AI claims it’s him; but I only hear him at the song’s close. The album credits for this tune list him, producer Andrew Watt, and Ronnie as the three backing vocalists, and I’ll be honest that I don’t have a clue to how Watt’s voice sounds, or how Ron’s singing sounds today (the little bit I’ve heard of him singing live in ’26 online, wasn’t too good), and with the Stones anyway, Ron’s never really been allowed to sing any lead or upfront vocals. It would be cool to know if that’s him who we are hearing on this number. Yet I don’t hear 4 different vocalists on this song, either. So, knowing how often album notes are wrong when it comes to listing the credits, it could be any one of the 3 listed singing the harmony on this one. But I’ll also note that this ditty is one of the best overall written Keith Richards songs in years – since A Bigger Bang was released in 2005, so no, it’s not just MJ who wrote excellent tunes on this LP!

43:45 Covered in You – Dig the lyrics here a lot, but the music, other than MJ’s harp, seems to be lacking some. But then again, not totally a bad song.

48:16 Side Effects – More real good lyrics from Mick on this one! A drug song for sure, yet with a double meaning within it, as he’s also talking here in the middle of the song about a girlfriend, too, as the lyrics show that to be the case. But while Mr. Jagger admits in this one that drugs aren’t good for one’s body, he’s not really putting them down here, either. Mick always been one who believed in the old saying “to each their own”, and that applies to this song, and of course, he’s totally correct in what he’s saying/singing on this ditty.

52:52 Back in Your Life – A slow number for this album and a breakup song with the singer here not wanting to give up on a relationship; something we don’t normally hear a lot of coming from the Stones. But once again, as is the case for the entire album, another nice lyric written song by the Glimmer Twins.

59:04 Beautiful Delilah (Chuck Berry cover) - Why no Ronnie on here and why cover this one yet again? Yes, this is one of the band’s earliest recorded studio songs, and they played it live at almost all their gigs back in 1962 thru ’64. Since there’s no Woodie on here, perhaps they could have instead released one of the early recorded live versions - since they never officially released this cover, and even if many of their hardnosed fans have heard those boots several times, many other fans haven’t. Yes, they played this one often in the early days and releasing something from the ’60s would have been very cool and different - and brave, as there’s no law saying they couldn’t do that, and most fans would have loved something like that if they had! But then again, being that it’s another cover on this LP, the bottom line is that two cover songs weren’t needed on the album. Yet this new studio cut is very good, so take off the Winehouse cover and this LP becomes much better, as "Beautiful Delilah" adds to the album.

So, there you have it, as far as looking at every song on the album. Overall, Foreign Tongues is the Stones best studio album recorded in years! The overall rating I give it puts it in my Stones Top 10 Album List, at #8! For me, it’s the best album by the band in 48 years, since Some Girls was released in 1978, and also is their first LP to make my Top Ten album list since Some Girls, as no other Stones album after 1978 was as good as this one is!

Foreign Tongues may also be the last studio album for the band - or any other band, that I’ll ever write an album review for, too, and I’ve written a few hundred such reviews since the early 1970s. But then again, if the Glimmer Twins (and myself) are still around in the next few years and the Stones do release another studio album, I just might come out of retirement again and write up yet another album review for them! After all, I’ve reviewed all of their studio LPs throughout the passing decades and as long as I’m still able to do so, I’m sure I’ll want to! But one thing I do know for sure is that, as far as Foreign Tongues goes, I’m gonna be playing this one for a long, long time to come!  

Keno, July, 2026

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