Thank you Rolling Stones for another great album. I shall be listening to it throughout the summer and beyond!

And the award for most unhinged and ludicrous comment about FT goes to... IORR user shadooby, who actually wrote this:

"I don’t know as much as I hate to say it I don’t hear obvious Keith fingers on this. I hate to say it as much as it hurts I think it’s Andrew playing his parts. It just sounds artificial. Something just seems off."

I think he desperately needs to make an appointment with an ear doctor and get a prescription for a hearing aid 
I can hear Keith loud and clear in my left ear, Ronnie right, and then on some occassions a 3rd (or even 4th) guitar jumps in on some songs, like e.g. on Divine Interventions you can clearly distinguish when Robert Smith starts to play...Mick's also playing guitar on loads of songs...altho I gotta admit for some reason on some songs (not on FT but in general) it's not always absolutely clear to me when Mick's playing cause sometimes he immitates Keith (which isn't really surprising considering Mick has said in a lot of 70s interviews how Keith has been teaching him when Mick first started to play guitar for the Stones)

But this is the most ridiculous thing someone has said since the whole "there's a 3rd guitarist underneath the stage who plays Keith's parts" discussion 🙈

Exactly! Ronnie expressed this very properly in his autobiography when saying that while all of them make good solo songs, that special magic only appears when it's the Stones together and one can 100% tell the difference...at least if one has working ears 😅

I reached that phase in my listening to a new album approach where I started to listen to songs on repeat...so far I did with Mr Charm and Ringing Hollow, had each on loop about 5 times...it helps me to really focus on the songs and notice little details that I don't catch when listening to one song after the other

My observations so far: Mr Charm's energy/vibe is very suitable for the 2nd song in a set, so if they indeed manage to come up with shows for next year, I can imagine them playing it very well in the spot they played e.g. Nervous 19th Breakdown in in 2022 (I think in 2024 they rotated that spot more often)...also I'm almost ashamed to say but I only noticed now that Chanel is providing bg vocals in this song in the last part, it's always great to hear her!

As for Ringing Hollow, I think it's an overall entirely perfect song: the lyrics, the melody, the guitars, especially Ronnie's sweet seeet pedal steel, also Mick and Keith singing such beautiful harminy together...

In fact, when discussing this song on the Planet Rock radio show I shared above, Keith said that Mick showed this song to him and asked him what he would improve and Keith said this song is already fucking perfect what do you still want me to add here?

So this means that (assuming Mick didn't mess up stuff again in his memory) if he was correct in saying that he broight 2 already finished songs to the sessions, that Ringing Hollow is one of them

But for me this doesn't mean that this song is a Mick solo song because it wouldn't sound the same if a Keef-lookalike guitar player and some Ronnie double played on it with Mick instead of the actual Keith and Ronnie, and that's what makes all the difference, plus especially Mick and Keith singing together...nobody can recreate this special kind of magic, the way their voices sound so perfectly together

You Know You're No Good still my fave track with Hit Me in the  Head a close second.

Bruno Mars plays cowbell on Never Wanna Lose You but I can't hear it.

To quote a line in a well known SNL sketch - Needs More Cowbell 

Rev 20 Redlights wrote on May 9^th, 2026 at 9:47am:

That NYT interview was insane...I first read it and then watched it after noticing there was a video because of course they don't write his answers exactly verbatim and things get lost in translation so I love hearing and seeing him when he answers which makes it all even more interesting, but damn wow some of those questions!!! That interviewer was top-notch and a true fan he was digging deep on some stuff and also the more philosophical questions or the way he phrased his questions in general was incredible and Mick's replies were so open and honest, it truly shows that he changed with age (also a topic they discussed) because 20 years ago he would definitely have given some veey different replies or would have simply laughed off some stuff

Btw what I found very insightful from this interview was this here about his way of writing songs because it seems he's done this loads on FT:

"I’ve also gotten into this habit of doing songs that are about personal relationships and then I throw a verse about politics in there. That’s a trick that I’ve learned from other songwriters, because nobody wants to hear a whole song about politics or social comment. A blues song like “Rough and Twisted,” you talk about women and everything, but then you throw in stuff that’s obviously political: “The only club was called conspiracy.” “What they wanted was tyranny.” So you find yourself using these tricks."

It's on R&T, In the Stars, Mr. Charm, Ringing Hollow and Covered in You (Divine Interventions is not so masked) and that's almost half the album on HD there was none of that which imo I felt back then that the lyrics were quite shallow in comparison

So for the first time I actually sat down and looked at the lyrics in the CD booklet...because idk I mean when Mick sings it's more difficult to interpret while listening... and I was thinking so far that Covered in You is a song about a toxic relationship in which a guy is abused by his gf (that's why taboo because we always talk loads about guys hitting their gfs but never the other way round)  but I just read the lyrics and was like wait a moment what if it's actually about the shitty gutter press always writing bs and basically verbally abusing people because it would explain the "born on my doorstep" line cause that's where you'd find your newspaper

What do y'all think?

Lots of positives about the album. Not sure which one I prefer of the two Watt produced ones. I like exploring new vocal styles and some new sounds. Less thrilled about the overall sound. Still think that Steve Jordan produces better sounding records and I would love to see what he and Mick could collaborate on in terms of production, but that would set off another set of issues in every direction. Mr. Charm is a perfect example for me. Starts just amazingly, incredible chorus, on the way to a stone cold classic, and then the poppy sort of limp "Life's too short" lines with the background singer take it all away. The Charlie track was a wonderful surprise. It just feels right. Overall, I probably prefer this to Hackney Diamonds.

I feel a little stupid for not knowing this before but so far I only always listened to music on Spotify or Amazon music the exact way it was provided through the app...since Apple music fucking sucks and randomly deleted some of the songs, I searched for another music app (since Spotify doesn't do loop for local data) and found Musicolet and it offers these equalizer options and they are fucking unreal...like wow...I can adjust how clear and loud I wanna hear each guitar or the drums and bass or the vocals and it's brilliant...FT sounds even better with this, I'm so happy right now that I learned this and now can enjoy the new music to its fullest extend

Btw now I can hear Keith even more clearly than before, everyone who thinks he's absent from the album maybe should play around with their equalizer options 🤪🤪🤪

Also wtf?? I omly now heard due to these options that Beautiful Delilah is on mono, this wasn't audible before at all on the regular app options

So true it honestly gets better and better with each play!! Especially now that I got my equalizer options all sorted out, I am floored, it's so so phenomenal... there's so much going on, all the little details I didn't even catch before with the bland ordinary app adjustments, but oh wow... I'd literally beg every single person who says they cannot hear Keith to please adjust their equalizer options because he is there loud and clear just as Mick said on Wednesday...there are so many little surprises hidden here and there it's amazing and probably will take some more listens to hear them all

This album is oustanding and I stick with my word that it's the best since Some Girls