The Rolling Stones - "Rough and Twisted" and "In the Stars"

And just like that, the Rolling Stones announced the release of Foreign Tongues, slated for Friday, July 10, 2026.

And then there were three…

Mick Jagger, 82; Keith Richards, 82; and Ronnie Wood, 78.

After the band released Hackney Diamonds (Polydor, 2023), I thought, “This is it.”

When drummer Charlie Watts died, August 24, 2021, I thought, “This is really it.”

Then the band announced their upcoming album, Foreign Tongues, scheduled to be released Friday, July 10, 2026. Anticipating this, the band floated two singles: the sublime “Rough and Twisted” and the-all-too-predictable “In the Stars.”

Elation — deflation. And this is decidedly not it.

The song “Rough and Twisted” delivers a beautifully organic and deranged blues sound that might date back to the release of Blue & Lonesome (Polydor, 2016). The song begins with a psychotic breakdown of a guitar riff, quickly joined by a second guitar playing single notes, and then some filthy slide guitar slashes. Mick Jagger is vibrant in his vocals and harmonica playing, all above the most inspired noise the band has made in years. If all of Foreign Tongues mirrors this depraved masterpiece, all will be well.

“In the Stars” is a solid rocker of a later Rolling Stones vintage, definitely showing the production of Andrew Watt, who blew all the dew off Hackney Diamonds, back on the present recording. This is the radio song, the one written and produced for Millennials and beyond. It is not a terrible song at all. But it is also not “Rough and Twisted.¹”

1. And with that said, I have preordered my copy of Foreign Tongues, as I have every RS’ release since Beggar’s Banquet (London, 1968).