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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsAndrew Watt helped the Rolling Stones turn years of stalled work into Hackney Diamonds by giving the band a fresh start and focusing the production on how its members played together. The album’s story is not one uniform recording session: it combines newer performances with Charlie Watts’s drums, recorded in 2019, on two tracks.
How Andrew Watt became the producer
After years of sessions that had not brought the Rolling Stones’ work to completion, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards decided to start fresh. Apple Music’s album editorial says they went to Jamaica for writing sessions and that Paul McCartney recommended Watt for the project. Watt then helped move the material toward a finished album. Apple Music’s account of Hackney Diamonds describes this process, rather than presenting a complete record of every session.
Why the production emphasized the band playing together
Apple Music characterizes Watt’s approach as keeping the production simple: the musicians played live without click tracks or glossy production tricks, and the sessions used vintage microphones. The editorial also highlights the interwoven guitars of Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood. These details describe the reported approach, not a full equipment list or a claim that every track was recorded the same way.
The aim was to capture the musicians responding to one another. Richards put it this way: “The whole point is the band being very close, eyeball to eyeball, and looking at each other and feeding off of each other.” In that framing, interaction was part of the intended sound—not merely a by-product of recording in the same room.
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One session in focus: “Rolling Stone Blues”
A particularly vivid example of Watt’s direction came with “Rolling Stone Blues,” the Muddy Waters song associated with the band’s name. In a Rolling Stone UK interview, Watt recalled suggesting an acoustic blues. Jagger did not want to write new blues lyrics, so the musicians chose the existing Waters song instead.
Ronnie Wood recalled Watt clearing the studio so Jagger and Richards could perform the song together. Watt said their playing converged over successive takes: “With each take, they moved closer and closer together.” He described the final recording as take four. The episode illustrates the producer’s role as more than a technical supervisor: Watt helped create the conditions for a performance and guided the musicians toward the feel he heard in it.
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How the album brings recordings from different times together
Hackney Diamonds was not recorded wholly live in one stretch, and Charlie Watts did not play on the newer sessions. BMG’s 2023 announcement says the album was written, recorded, and mixed in a few months, while also specifying that Watts’s drums were recorded in 2019 and appear on two songs. Steve Jordan plays drums on the rest. That distinction matters: the album’s emphasis on musicians playing off one another is a description of its production approach, not a claim that every performance was captured together at the same time. BMG’s announcement provides the session and personnel details.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Release details and later collaboration
BMG announced Hackney Diamonds for release on October 20, 2023. Apple Music’s US catalog listing displays October 23, 2023, and lists 12 songs with a total length of 48 minutes. The release-date difference is best understood as a difference between the dates shown by those sources, rather than silently treating them as one date.
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The collaboration continued: Universal Music Canada’s July 10, 2026 announcement says the Stones reunited with Watt for Foreign Tongues and identifies him as the producer who also helmed Hackney Diamonds.
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