The three surviving members of The Rolling Stones attended a red-carpet event in Brooklyn on Tuesday to celebrate the launch of the band’s 25th studio album, Foreign Tongues, a follow-up to their Grammy-winning 2023 release.
The 14-track collection will debut on July 10 as Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood mark the 64th anniversary of the blues and R&B-rooted English rock band that became one of the world's most influential and enduring pop music acts.
The album cover, created by painter Nathaniel Mary Quinn, features a colourful, almost grotesque, three-in-one composite likeness of Jagger, Richards and Wood, with exaggerated facial features assembled into a single disfigured portrait.
At an afternoon launch party held at the Weylin, a landmark events venue in New York City's Brooklyn borough, the trio walked the red carpet, posed for photographs and took part in an interview session with comedian and talk show host Conan O'Brien.
The album's lead single In the Stars, along with the opening track Rough and Twisted, was launched digitally on Tuesday, ahead of the physical distribution on May 15.
Fans got a sneak peek of Rough and Twisted in April when it was issued as a limited vinyl-only release under the pseudonym Cockroaches, an old alias for the band, to generate buzz around the album.
Foreign Tongues marks the band’s second studio album since the 2021 death of drummer Charlie Watts and the 25th set of new music since the group was founded in 1962 with a line-up that included Jagger, Richards and multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones, who died in 1969.
Watts and bassist Bill Wyman joined early to complete the first stable line-up. Wood came on board in the 1970s, replacing guitarist Mick Taylor, while Wyman quit in the early 1990s.
The current core trio had reunited for the 2023 album Hackney Diamonds, their first original release in 18 years, which went on to win the Grammy Award for best rock album. The record also featured some of Watts' final studio work and marked the band's first studio contributions from drummer Steve Jordan.
Jordan and bassist Darryl Jones form the rhythm section on Foreign Tongues, which also includes a “special appearance” from Watts. Guest artists on the album include Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, Robert Smith and Chad Smith.
