"We went in and played. No overthinking, no endless takes. The room made it happen in ways we did not expect.
"Mick Jagger · on recording Foreign Tongues at Metropolis Studios · 2026
25th Album. Five Decades. One Month to Record.
Foreign Tongues is the Rolling Stones' 25th studio album, arriving July 10, 2026 via Polydor and Interscope Records. Recorded in under a month at Metropolis Studios in West London, it follows the Grammy-winning Hackney Diamonds with the same producer, Andrew Watt, and the same restless creative energy. The title comes from a playful marketing campaign that revealed the tracklist only in translation, across 14 languages, before the English titles were confirmed. The Stones being the Stones: even the announcement is a piece of theatre.
Release date
July 10, 2026
Studio album number
25th in the catalogue
Recorded in
under one month (Metropolis Studios, London)
Number of tracks
14 including one Charlie Watts recording
Guest artists
Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, Robert Smith, Chad Smith
Lead single UK charted
In the Stars (May 8, 2026)
Metacritic score
78 out of 100, generally favorable
5decades of Rolling Stones studio albums
The Tracks and the Stories Behind Them
The record opens with Rough and Twisted, released weeks before the album under the alias The Cockroaches, a limited physical twelve-inch that became an instant collector item. In the Stars (May 8) is the proper lead single: an arena-scaled anthem with Watt's production pushed to its widest. Jealous Lover followed on June 26 and is tighter, more stripped back. Hit Me in the Head is the Charlie Watts track, built from sessions recorded before his death in 2021. The most surprising cut is the Amy Winehouse cover You Know I'm No Good, recorded with what sources describe as a single live take. Beautiful Delilah closes the record and is the oldest song on the tracklist in spirit, if not in writing.
Paul McCartney appears on one track, which marks the first time a Beatle and a Stone have shared a studio recording for a commercially released album since the early 1970s sessions era.
Charlie Watts contributes to Hit Me in the Head, recorded in one of his final sessions before his passing in August 2021. It is the second Hackney-era album to carry a Watts credit alongside 2023's Mess It Up and Live by the Sword.
Foreign Tongues is a 25th studio album from a band formed in 1962. Does longevity at \
this level deepen what the music means, or does it change what we expect from it? Is the Stones' best work already behind them, or is there a case that the post-Watts era is a genuine second act?
