Mick Jagger channels his soulful “Emotional Rescue” falsetto on “Jealous Lover,” one of two newly released songs off the Rolling Stones’ upcoming Foreign Tongues album, which comes out July 10. A video for the song, available only on Amazon Music for now,
dramatizes the lyrics as Anya Taylor-Joy turns green with envy when she thinks her boyfriend, Charles Melton, is cheating on her. The couple dukes it out in a seedy motel parking lot.
Eventually, they drag the fight (and each other) into the motel, as Jagger sings, “Hands off, jealous lover,” over a funky R&B backdrop. Needless to say, things get weird for Melton by the end of the video where you can hear a snippet of another, as-yet-released Stones song, “Mr. Charm.” People who don’t have Amazon Music can enjoy listening to “Jealous Lover” on YouTube and other streaming services. In addition to the five Stones, the song features Steve Winwood on Rhodes piano and organ, producer Andrew Watt plays several instruments, and Matt Clifford plays the synth.
The band also released another Foreign Tongues song, “Divine Intervention,” which features additional guitar played by the Cure’s Robert Smith. The upbeat song in which Jagger envisions the end of the world also features Winwood on piano and organ, Watt on synths and background vocals, saxophonist James King, and trumpeter Ron Blake.
Jagger explained how Smith wound up on the album at a press event in New York. “I turned up one day to do my vocals in London, and there’s this bloke standing there with his back to me with this long gown on,” the singer said. “And when he turned around, he was covered in lipstick. And I said — I’d never met him before — You’re Robert Smith of the Cure! He said, ‘Yeah!’ And I said, Well, while you’re here then, you better go and do something.”
The new songs follow the previously released singles “In the Stars” and “Rough and Twisted.” Other guests on the album include Paul McCartney, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith, and Bruno Mars. Original Stones drummer, Charlie Watts, also makes an appearance from a session that took place shortly before his death.
Foreign Tongues is the band’s first new album in three years. Rolling Stone praised it in a review as continuing the band’s late-career winning streak. “In some ways, Foreign Tongues is an improvement on Hackney Diamonds, in that the latter occasionally sounded a little too much like a Jagger solo record in its emphasis on vocal melodies; this one feels more guitar-centric and holistically Stones-y,” the magazine commented, rating the album four stars out of five.
To accompany the album release, the band has launched a podcast, Speaking in Tongues, hosted by Norah Jones. The first episode is available now and features interviews with Jagger, Keith Richards, and Ron Wood.
In a recent interview, Richards suggested that the band might no longer tour. “I don’t know if tours are possible,” he said. “It’s the traveling that takes it out of you. But I do see the possibility of us doing residency somewhere. Wherever it is, London, New York, Paris, anywhere. I’ll play Rome! But I don’t see why they shouldn’t be able to throw some shows together in a new format.”
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