The Keith Richards riff machine is still in fine working order as the Rolling Stones return with new single Angry

The Rolling Stones are officially back, sharing the first single from their forthcoming new album, Hackney Diamonds, which hits record stores (and streaming services) worldwide on October 20.

The track is titled Angry, and it is everything you could want from the Stones in the 21st century, with an insistent riff, a big vocal hook, and a couple of solos that sound as though they’ve tumbled head first out of the electric guitar.

The video follows Sydney Sweeney (The White Lotus) in a convertible that’s working its way through a West Coast city’s streets – it has to be L.A. – as billboards along the side of the road come alive with animated renderings of the Stones – and their guitars – through the years.

There’s what looks like the 1969 Madison Square Garden performance that was captured for posterity on Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! 

There’s Ronnie Wood with his 1978 Zemaitis single-cut – playing a lead that doesn’t quite match what’s laid out on the track here but that’s not what matters; we’re taking a trip through Stones history here.

There is Jagger in a blue jump suit. Keith Richards and his number one Telecaster, the heavily modded Micawber. Director Francois Rousselet does a neat job in threading the line from past to present.

As for the present, Hackney Diamonds will be the English rock ’n’ roll institution’s first album of original material since 2005’s A Bigger Bang. The Stones decamped to various studios across the world in the company of über-producer Andrew Watt – most notable in these parts for his work with Ozzy Osborne and Pearl Jam, but a who also counts blue-chip stars such as Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber among his clients.

Watt reportedly shares a writing credit on Angry, and his itinerary with the band took him on a whistle-stop tour around some of the most legendary recording facilities in the world. There was Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles, Metropolis in London, Sanctuary Studios under the hot sun in Nassau, Bahamas, Electric Lady Studios and The Hit Factory/Germano Studios in New York.

The album will be their first with new drummer Steve Jordan, but is also reported to have some of the final recordings laid down by the late Charlie Watts. It is not as though the Stones have been in retirement these past few years. 

Their Sixty Tour celebrated the band’s anniversary in stadiums across the world. Keith Richards had made it known on his Instagram page that new music was coming. The question was when.

Today, 6 September, 18 years to the day since A Bigger Bang’s release, we have the answer, with the band in at the Hackney Empire in east London right this minute announcing the album in the company of Jimmy Fallon. 

Hackney Diamonds is out October 20 through Universal.