The Rolling Stones announce new album Foreign Tongues: release is scheduled for July 10
The Rolling Stones have confirmed a new studio album,
Foreign Tongues, whose release has been announced for July 10, 2026. Alongside the album announcement, the band also released a new single,
In The Stars, finally giving an official framework to a weeks-long campaign of enigmatic posters, hidden clues and promotional messages. The album arrives less than three years after
Hackney Diamonds, the 2023 release that marked the band's major discographic return and its first work with new original material after 18 years. The new record is therefore not viewed only as another late chapter in a career more than six decades long, but also as confirmation that Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood continue to work at a rhythm that is exceptionally rare for a group with such a history.
According to the published information,
Foreign Tongues will contain 14 songs, and guests from different generations of the rock and pop scene also took part in the recording. Among the most prominent names mentioned are Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, Robert Smith of The Cure and Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Particular attention was also drawn by the confirmation that the album will feature a posthumous contribution from Charlie Watts, the longtime Rolling Stones drummer who died in 2021. According to announcements related to the album, this is material from one of his final recording sessions, which gives the new release additional emotional and historical weight.
From mysterious posters to official confirmation
The album announcement did not come suddenly. In recent weeks, a carefully staged promotional campaign had been built around the band, combining old Rolling Stones habits with new digital patterns. First, posters appeared in London bearing the name The Cockroaches, a pseudonym the band had used before, along with a QR code that led to a special sign-up website. After signing up, a message connected with Universal Music, the band's record company, arrived, but without direct confirmation that it was a new Rolling Stones album. That uncertainty was an important part of the campaign: fans connected clues, followed changes on official channels and compared visual motifs with the band's recognizable iconography.
The next step was a vinyl clue. The song
Rough and Twisted appeared as a release under the name The Cockroaches, in the form of a white label intended for the most persistent followers. That type of release recalled the practice from a time when music information spread more slowly, through record shops, clubs and rumours, but in this case it functioned as a contemporary viral riddle. In the week before the official announcement, global posters followed with the familiar lips and tongue logo, and the title
Foreign Tongues appeared in different languages. In this way, the album title itself was turned into a marketing motif: foreign tongues were not only the title, but also the way in which the news gradually spread around the world.
Short video clips stylized as studio surveillance footage also appeared on the band's official channels. In addition, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood posted parts of visuals on social networks that together formed a caricature-like collage of their faces. It turned out that this puzzle motif was connected with the album cover. The campaign thus combined secrecy, nostalgia, digital interaction and the band's recognizable humour in several stages, with the announcement functioning as an event before the music itself was released.
An album after the major comeback with Hackney Diamonds
Foreign Tongues comes after the album
Hackney Diamonds, which in 2023 had a particularly important role in the late phase of the Rolling Stones. It was their first album with completely new original material since
A Bigger Bang from 2005. In addition, it was the first major studio project released after the death of Charlie Watts, who appeared posthumously on two songs from that release. In that context, the new album continues a process in which the band simultaneously confronts its own history and tries to maintain relevance beyond pure nostalgia.
Production is once again handled by Andrew Watt, the producer who also worked on
Hackney Diamonds. His role is not insignificant because the previous release helped bring the band closer to a contemporary sound without fully separating it from the basic, raw rock expression for which the Rolling Stones are known. According to available information, work on
Foreign Tongues took place at London's Metropolis Studios. In a statement related to the album, Mick Jagger stressed that the recordings in London were intense and that he liked the atmosphere of a space that was not too large, because it was easier there to feel the energy of the people in the room.
Such a description fits well with the image the Rolling Stones have built of themselves for decades: a band that, regardless of stadium scale, still rests on the dynamics of a small room, amplifiers, rhythm and direct communication among musicians. That is precisely why the announcement of 14 new songs carries more weight than discographic statistics alone. At a stage of their career in which many authors would rely exclusively on archival reissues, compilations and tours, the Rolling Stones are once again appearing with new material and a clear release date.
Charlie Watts as the historical thread of the new release
One of the most important elements of the album will be the posthumous appearance of Charlie Watts. For decades, Watts was the rhythmic axis of the Rolling Stones, known for his restrained, precise and recognizably elegant playing style. His death in 2021 marked a turning point in the band's history, but not the end of their studio work. On
Hackney Diamonds, his playing was heard on two songs, and
Foreign Tongues now brings another recording from the final periods of his work with the band.
That information also opens up a broader context: today the Rolling Stones are no longer only an active rock group, but also an institution of popular culture that carries its own past into new formats. The inclusion of Watts's contribution cannot be reduced to a sentimental addition. His drums are part of the band's identity, and every new recording on which he participates changes the way the album is read within the Rolling Stones' body of work. In this way,
Foreign Tongues gains a double function: it represents a new chapter, but also connects the current line-up with one of the key members from the group's classic history.
At the same time, the band continues to work with drummer Steve Jordan, who after Watts's death took on a very demanding role in the concert and studio life of the Rolling Stones. In the publicly available information about the album, the emphasis for now is on guest appearances and Watts's special contribution, while the complete picture of the sound will be clearer after the release of all the songs. Still, the very fact that the new album brings together the final traces of Watts's work and the band's current creative phase makes
Foreign Tongues one of the most interesting releases in their late career.
Guests who broaden the album's generational range
The guest list shows that on the new album the Rolling Stones are not relying only on their own legend, but also on a conversation with other important songwriters and performers. Paul McCartney, as a former member of the Beatles and one of the most recognizable musicians of the 20th century, has already collaborated with the Rolling Stones on
Hackney Diamonds, and his presence on the new project further connects the two greatest British rock stories. Steve Winwood brings the legacy of soul, blues, rock and keyboard tradition, while Robert Smith of The Cure represents a different line of British music, marked by post-punk, atmosphere and a more melancholic authorial expression.
Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers further broadens the generational and stylistic range. His name points to a connection with American rock that emerged decades after the formation of the Rolling Stones, but which still relies on strong rhythm, directness and concert energy. Such a combination of guests may suggest an album that will not be closed within one stylistic niche, but will move between blues-rock foundations, pop-rock memory, more modern production and the recognizable Stones-like stride.
It is important, however, not to draw premature conclusions about the sound of the entire album. Until the release of the full edition, it remains open how the guests are distributed across the songs, how prominent their roles are and to what extent they influence the structure of the album. What is clear is that in the promotion the band decided to emphasize collaborations as one of the key assets. In a recording industry in which it is increasingly difficult to hold the public's attention, names of such calibre help the news of the album cross the boundaries of the usual rock audience and become a broader cultural event.
In The Stars as the first official entry into a new chapter
Alongside the album announcement, the single
In The Stars was also presented. After a period of clues, codes and indirect announcements, this song marks the first official musical entry into
Foreign Tongues. While
Rough and Twisted functioned as a deliberately blurred teaser under the pseudonym The Cockroaches,
In The Stars carries the weight of an official release. In this way, the campaign moved from the domain of fan detective work into a more standard discographic cycle, in which a single opens the period leading up to the album release.
For the Rolling Stones, such a transition is especially interesting because the band belongs to an era in which albums were the central medium of popular music, while today's market model often rests on individual songs, short video content and fragments that spread through social networks. The campaign for
Foreign Tongues shows that the Stones are aware of both logics. On the one hand, they preserve the idea of the album as a complete event with a title, cover, date and narrative. On the other hand, they use tactics that function in the contemporary media environment: enigmatic posts, limited physical copies, short clips and globally coordinated visuals.
That is precisely one of the reasons why the album announcement resonates beyond the classic music section. It also speaks about the way legendary performers try to remain visible in the digital space. In doing so, the Rolling Stones do not abandon their own mythology, but adapt it to the new rhythm of attention distribution. Their lips and tongue logo, one of the best-known symbols in rock history, has again been used as the main sign of recognition, but this time through multiple languages, cities and platforms.
Why Foreign Tongues is important for the late phase of the Rolling Stones
According to available announcements,
Foreign Tongues will be the twenty-fifth studio album by the Rolling Stones. The number is impressive in itself, but even more important is the place the album occupies in time. The band formed in the early sixties, grew out of blues and rhythm and blues, became one of the key symbols of rock culture and survived almost all changes in the music industry: from singles and vinyl, through cassettes and CDs, to streaming and social networks. In such a body of work, every new release carries the question of whether a group with so much history can still produce music that is not only an addition to old glory.
Hackney Diamonds showed that there is still great interest in the Rolling Stones when new material has clear energy and when it is presented as a relevant project, not merely as a reason for a tour.
Foreign Tongues now comes after a shorter interval than audiences have become used to expecting from the band in the late stage of its career. This points to a more continuous creative cycle, probably driven by studio work from previous years and collaboration with a producer who managed to return them to the focus of a new discographic story.
The very fact that London, Brooklyn, global posters, limited vinyl and digital clues were mentioned in the announcement shows how much the project has been positioned as an international event. The title
Foreign Tongues can be read literally through the multilingual campaign, but also symbolically, as a reference to the ability of the language of rock to be constantly translated into new contexts. The Rolling Stones spent a large part of their career appropriating, reinterpreting and spreading African American blues and rock patterns, and the new title opens space for thinking about language, identity and the global circulation of popular music, although the band itself has not yet offered an extensive interpretation of its meaning.
Expectations until the album release
Until July 10, 2026, the focus will probably be on new singles, possible additional information about the track list and details about the roles of the guest musicians. It is currently unclear whether the album announcement will be accompanied by a tour or special concert performances, although in recent years the band has shown that it can still deliver major performances. For now, media and promotional activity has been confirmed, including an event in Brooklyn in which Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood are taking part.
In the case of the Rolling Stones, every new release is necessarily viewed through the long shadow of the band's history. But
Foreign Tongues has not been presented as an archival project, but as a new studio release with a current single, a contemporary campaign and a series of major guest names. That is precisely why it will be interesting to see whether the album will continue the path opened by
Hackney Diamonds: to confirm that the late phase of the Rolling Stones is not reduced only to maintaining a legend, but also to an attempt to inscribe that legend once again into the present moment of popular music.
Sources:- Associated Press – news about the announcement of the album Foreign Tongues, the release date, the single In The Stars, guests and promotional campaign (link)- The Rolling Stones – the band's official website with current announcements and promotional materials (link)- Uncut – announcement about the album Foreign Tongues, the July 10 release and the continuation after Hackney Diamonds (link)- Ultimate Classic Rock – overview of the cover, guests and promotional puzzle related to the album (link)- Deadline – report on Charlie Watts's posthumous contribution and guest musicians on the album (link)
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