Foreign Tongues: A New Autopsy of the Rolling Stones

 

Listening to Foreign Tongues doesn’t excite me. The Rolling Stones stopped being relevant after Exile On Main St. in 1972, with only occasional flashes of genius like Some Girls or Tattoo You. Every album since Tattoo You (1981) has been a failed attempt to fuse those two records in which the Stones genuinely tried to sound modern. I wonder if Jagger or Richards even listen to relevant bands today beyond the so called indie rock of Sam Fender. What about Jack White, The Blue Stones, Rival Sons, or All Them Witches? 

Foreign Tongues is a new effort to update the sound of Some Girls, to be precise. Once again, though, the Stones end up recycling their old, obsolete riffs. Foreign Tongues sometimes sounds like Hackney Diamonds leftovers.

The man tasked with “rejuvenating” the Stones’ sound is once again Andrew Watt, the favorite producer of the geriatric ward. Paul McCartney, Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, they’ve all been through his hands. Watt basically gives the Stones TRT to try to bring back some of their youth. He piles on layers of distorted guitars and cranks up the drum volume. On the album’s first track, “Rough and Twisted,” it works decently. Still, it’s nothing more than a copy of Chicago blues and an adaptation of the production style from the legendary Buddy Guy’s recent records. There’s nothing of the classic Stones in that opening track except Jagger’s trademark growl.

On “In The Stars,” Watt takes the AC/DC sound, my Rolling Stones, and applies it to the band. Did Watt draw inspiration from Rick Rubin for this one? Although the album already shows serious flaws by this point, “Jealous Lover” starts to sink it badly. Jagger’s horrendous falsetto on what is perhaps the worst track on the record simplistic and soulless. “Mr. Charm” continues with the band sounding lost and increasingly stripped of its classic identity. It’s clear the Stones died in the early ’80s.

“Divine Intervention” barely rescues the album from total boredom, with its obvious Exile inspiration. “Never Wanna Lose You” is another salvageable track that takes us back to the atmosphere of Some Girls. “Hit Me In The Head” and “Covered In You” are my favorite songs on the record, they have real bite. Here the band actually sounds inspired and evokes their glory days, obviously bolstered by Watt’s steroid-filled added guitars and drums.

The band’s cover of Amy Winehouse’s “You Know I’m No Good” is a regrettable failure. Far from making us think the Stones admired or felt any real affinity with Winehouse, it all seems like a half baked idea. In the end, we know Foreign Tongues is just another excuse for the Stones to go on tour and keep getting richer by playing “Satisfaction” every night. I doubt many of these tracks will make it into the band’s live setlist or that the Stones could even perform them without fifteen backing musicians. Any album by Chuck Berry or the New York Dolls is a million times better than this.