[www.bpi.co.uk]

Album just went GOLD, that's 100 000 copies sold in UK.

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Spud
Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

After such a long gap since they last released new recorded music, it was always going to be difficult to know how to pitch the marketing.

Go totally over the top and risk the embarrassment of a "damp squib" ?

Under-sell it and miss the full potential.?

I suspect the reception has been as good as they could have hoped and better than they could have feared.

Yes, they could have pushed it harder...but could have ended up looking a bit silly.

It's not the 1980s anymore.

Print ads are... not seen like they used to be.

We've gotten so used to seeing 348 sites say ABC about this, and then 352 sites saying EFG.

Then there's the whole charts thing. That will end soon. Whoever paying Billboard to report albums that sell 53,000 hard copies in week one will start thinking, Why bother?

In the 1980/90s it was the local newspaper mention at release time and then a bigger piece when the tour reached town; Rolling Stone magazine review and or article. NME, Melody Maker, maybe Time, maybe Life, maybe People...

These days you can see what Cleveland or Seattle this or that says.

And that's just the local site.

So many other sites now, guitar zines, some site that deals with current yet gives the Stones a bone.

There's a lot of respect going around with HD.

The Stones machine does whatever on Twitter/FaceBook/Instagram/Threads and then YouTube and... that's the direct.

Then you have what I mentioned above plus whatever, zines etc.

Even with all the coverage they got, the album didn't hit #1 in the US. Is that because they're old?

No. It has nothing to do with their age.

Does Mick sound 79 years old on the album? Because that's how old he was while recording it... he sounds better, overall, than the previous 5 albums (going back to 1986). What does a 79 year old English male sound like?

Basically not like Mick Jagger I'm gonna guess.

@Georgelicks

Please, Tell us what is the situation about HD in the charts of main countries, its certificazione (in Italy it Us still in the Top 20...) and how many copies it sold worldwide...Thank you very much!

@Georgelicks

Please, Tell us what is the situation about HD in the charts of main countries, its certificazione (in Italy it is still in the Top 20...) and how many copies it sold worldwide...Thank you very much!

Friday after work is becoming my day & time to listen to the Hackney Diamonds again. I played it on my commute home yesterday, and it was fantastic. I swear I'm hearing new things each time. Some of the songs are just fantastic and seem fresh again and again.

Number 8 in UK this week...( 1...3...4...)

A collapse on the Billboard 200 this week...3 weeks on the chart now #33

[www.billboard.com]

Oh well...still a fantastic album.

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treaclefingers
A collapse on the Billboard 200 this week...3 weeks on the chart now #33

[www.billboard.com]

Oh well...still a fantastic album.

Collapse!

I don't recall, didn't A BIGGER BANG dive bomb off the charts?

Still #5 in the World Charts [www.mediatraffic.de]

However it's already been demoted from Sticky status !

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IORR Links : Essential Studio Outtakes CDs : Audio - History of Rarest Outtakes : Audio

Still #1 in my book (and that of others), perhaps until their next release.

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GasLightStreet

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treaclefingers
A collapse on the Billboard 200 this week...3 weeks on the chart now #33

[www.billboard.com]

Oh well...still a fantastic album.

Collapse!

I don't recall, didn't A BIGGER BANG dive bomb off the charts?

It's baked into the promotion I guess. All the variations and long presale period, designed to (try to ) get a #1 album so they have that, but as we don't stream but instead listen to our copies, how can it maintain that status?

If physical copies didn't exist they would chart for longer, but probably not as a top 20 hit.

The Stones has a massive promotion apparatus. When that slows in, sales slows in. Then you depend solely on having radio or streaming hits to keep up the sales.

They had to push the album sales with a cool "Mess It Up" or "Get Close" video and not with a usless remix.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2023-11-19 23:36 by HardRiffin.

“Respectable”

A review of Hackney Diamonds by Fred Michmershuizen

It’s been one month since the lads released their 26th US album, Hackney Diamonds. I have not stopped playing it since. It’s that good. And I am not just saying this because I am an obsessed fan. I am an obsessed fan. But I’m no schoolboy. I know what I like. My favorite flavor is cherry red, and you better believe I can do the hip shake baby.

Like most Stones albums, this one encompasses various musical styles and genres and demonstrates that, no matter how OLD they are, they still know what they’re doing.

According to the interviews the Stones have been giving as publicity to coincide with the release, they recorded the bulk of Hackney Diamonds over the course of only a few months. Their new drummer, Steve Jordan, is on most of the tracks. Charlie Watts, who died in 2021, is on two of the songs, and the album is dedicated to him. The whole album does indeed sound fresh, like it was recorded without too much fuss. It’s not over-produced. It is however, very Stonesy. And I like it, like it, yes I do!

My thoughts and notes:

• The songs with the most Jagger swagger are Live By the Sword and Whole Wide World.
• The songs with the grooviest Keith Richards riffs are Angry and Get Close. The latter features a wonderful bit of saxophone.
• The hardest rocker is Bite My Head Off, a punk song. Paul McCartney appears on this one, and about halfway through, if you listen VERY closely, you can hear Mick call on the beloved Beatle: “Alright Paul, let’s hear some bass.”
• According to the liner notes, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts appear on Live By the Sword. Elton John is also on Live By the Sword, as well as Get Close.
• The album is produced by a 33-year-old whippersnapper named Andrew Watt, whose parents I’m guessing had not even met yet when Tattoo You came out! Whatever Andrew Watt did, I give him much praise. He shares songwriting credit with the Glimmer Twins on three of the songs, and he plays bass on a few as well. Daryl Jones is not on the album at all.
• The dramatic crescendo of the album is Sweet Sounds of Heaven, a gospel song featuring Lady Gaga on vocals. Stevie Wonder is on piano, and if you listen very closely after the pause toward the end, you can hear Mick whisper softly, “Play me something, Stevie.”
• The final track on the album is a cover of the Muddy Waters song Rolling Stone Blues, which is the blues song from which the band derived its name. This sounds like it is just Keith on acoustic guitar and Mick on vocal and harmonica. They do it so very well, because the Delta blues is embedded in their souls.

My personal favorite is Depending On You, one of two country songs on the album. This song moves me more than any of the others, because it makes me think of my dear friend Steven S. Couse, who died in 2021, not long after Charlie. Steve, who was even more in tune with the Stones than I ever could hope to be, would have been very into this album. I do wish that he were here now to listen with me. I miss you, Steve!

You can call Hackley Diamonds a comeback album if you will. Most recently the Stones released Blue and Lonesome, a collection of blues covers, in 2016. Before that their most recent album of newly written material was A Bigger Bang, which was also a very strong album, back in 2005.

But in my view, this is the most important album the Stones have released in a long time. You think the party is over but it’s only just, only just begun! Yes, these songs are strong enough for the band tour on. Angry will fit nicely in the set list between Honky Tonk Women and Start Me Up. Whole Wide World, Bite My Head Off, Live By the Sword, and Mess it Up all absolutely, 100 percent need to be played live. And Sweet Sounds of Heaven will be fantastic as the show’s closer. Speaking of which, if you haven’t yet seen the 7-minute rendition of Sweet Sounds of Heaven with Lady Gaga, recorded live before 700 lucky attendees on Oct. 19 at their surprise album launch gig at Racket in NYC, it is highly recommended. You can find it on YouTube without too much trouble.

Quote
treaclefingers

Quote
GasLightStreet

Quote
treaclefingers
A collapse on the Billboard 200 this week...3 weeks on the chart now #33

[www.billboard.com]

Oh well...still a fantastic album.

Collapse!

I don't recall, didn't A BIGGER BANG dive bomb off the charts?

It's baked into the promotion I guess. All the variations and long presale period, designed to (try to ) get a #1 album so they have that, but as we don't stream but instead listen to our copies, how can it maintain that status?

If physical copies didn't exist they would chart for longer, but probably not as a top 20 hit.

I dunno.

The presale... I know of people that preordered something and expected it to show up pre-release date because they pre-ordered it...

I get my my physical copy but also stream (YouTube, YouTube Music, AmazonMusic and, for a little while, AppleMusic), regardless of when it comes/came out.

Snoop got pissed off recently about the entire process, about how artists get paid.

He's absolutely correct.

I get it costs ABC amount to make hard copies, and then the movement (stores, Amazon, direct from record label etc) but why the hell are streaming amounts so low?

Ian Astbury (The Cult) expressed in 2010 or so, who decides what a song (treated as a single) is worth. $.99 or $1.29? Who came up with that without in regard to the worth of creating it?

I never saw a response in regard to his questioning it.

The Cult were never on a big label. Their physical singles, EPs and LP (vinyl, CD, eventually download for all 3) sales mattered.

If a song is worth $.99 for purchase but for $10.99 a month for a subscription just to be able to stream what one wants, that $.99 is now worth $.004 a stream?

If I subscribed for $10.99 a month and only listened to one album, does that artist get whatever portion, in agreement of the label etc, of what I paid?

We fling YouTUbe links around here like they're goddamn Skittles!

That's the culture.

It can be viewed as the record labels being way behind the game when Napster etc were around and they refused to evolve.

But they did.

Yet...

One way to look at it is the big acts, big labels or indies, based in the old school, are doing their best with the new way (even though "they" actually have nothing to do with it outright).

There are exceptions within the old school.

Jimmy Buffett was one perfect example: he got so pissed off with MCA Records, then had a 2 album deal with Island, didn't sign back up, he said the hell with this, and his Mailboat Records got $6 per hard copy because Jimmy figured out how to cut out "the middle man" (for a while it was only CD) regardless of where/how it was sold, which kept the price down for buyers because the norm is if it costs $6 for us it costs at least $11.99 for you.

I never found out what Mailboat's rate was per stream or download.

That's just one example of an indie label.

That $.004 a stream is in the US. I know it's a good bit more so elsewhere, mostly Europe, as I understand it.

The Rolling Stones have been in deep with major label life post-Atlantic/Rolling Stones Records when they signed up with EMI and then Columbia/Sony, then Virgin, then... they aren't anyone to worry.

The Stones, U2, Bruce, Dylan... maybe a few others are still with the big labels but small labels are really getting it, like Cooking Vinyl, Black Hill, but most so artist owned labels (Jimmy Buffett, Jason Isbell, Dave Matthews and whoever else) are actually getting it done, it seems.

So much changes so fast. Publishing will always keep the record labels alive, though. It will be a very very long time until (some) record labels, as we know them to be, cease to exist.

As great as it would've been to see HACKNEY DIAMONDS enter #1 in the US... they did elsewhere, and in 2023 #1 isn't all it's cracked up to be, unless you believe the hype.

Where's the Like or enjoyment button vs sales?

Because UMG/UMe isn't counting how many times I play HACKNEY DIAMONDS on CD.

The new Stones album, "Hackney Diamonds" is excellent. The LP pressed on green vinyl arrived last week from Amazon (three weeks overdue). Nipper (my dog) gave it a spin on Saturday and reports the vinyl is in good shape - a good pressing, no pops, clicks or surface noise. The music is up-tempo with plenty of classic Stones guitar riffs - Stones as we love them. Really, not a bad track on the album .... whoever claimed there are only three decent tracks either didn't play the entire album or suffers a hearing defect.

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GasLightStreet

If I subscribed for $10.99 a month and only listened to one album, does that artist get whatever portion, in agreement of the label etc, of what I paid?

The portion that the artist gets from your streaming subscription can be found here - [iorr.org] , [iorr.org] .

"A large portion, yes!"

It's sticky again!

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MonkeyMan2000

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MadMax
Anyone stating Depending On You is better than Streets Of Love or indeed Already Over Me is not getting what The Stones are about. Having said that it is a beautiful song but the lack of Charlie does a lot. Already over Me and SOL couldve been written by Gram Parsons and Marvin Gaye, larger than life ballads. As soon as Mess It Up and Live By The Sword kick in you know yer back in Stones Land. Quite a pity since I found Steve's drumming on Crosseyed Heart to be the best drumming (on record)regarding our boys since Voodoo Lounge.
On CH he emulates Charlie PERFECT! Dig him on TIC and MO too so it ain't an issue with Steve for me.
So proud of the fact that HD got to number 1 in my country and numerous others, it just ain't the same without Charlie.

Huh? The first time I heard the Depending on You leak, I thought that it was one of the Charlie tracks! From the first fill to the hi hat, I don't think I've heard a better Charlie impression from Steve. On many other tunes like Driving Me Too Hard he's also very near Charlie's style while on Crosseyed Heart he plays Winos-style.

Come on mate, CH is full of those Charlie hi-hat syncops he started to do in the mid-70's (ADTL during the '78 tour and after being the most glorius example but there are 100s).

On HD the drums are more plain rock drums (indeed more Winos-like if you want).
Anyone not noticing this is just not paying attention to the drums. Anyway I love Steve's drumming just would have loved a more Crosseyed Heart approach to HD as well.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2023-11-20 16:37 by MadMax.

One track where Charlie would have certainly drummed VERY differently is WWW, the drumming is a complete slugfest, an athletic performance of sorts, tasteless. Besides I'm pretty sure he speeds up towards the end.

I couldn't believe my ears when Paul Sexton said that track had "great drumming" during the 1 hour special !

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IORR Links : Essential Studio Outtakes CDs : Audio - History of Rarest Outtakes : Audio

WWW remains one of my least favorite tracks on the album along with Driving Me Too Hard and Get Close. I just can't make them work.

Hi All,

Re: Hackney Diamonds CD + Blu-Ray Boxset - BLACK FRIDAY DEAL

The Polydor Records UK online store has a 30% discount offer on this using code - 30OFF.

Even with the standard postage (£3.95), the £42.44 total is £12.00 cheaper than on Amazon UK aright now.

Polydor Records UK Online Store

Cheers,
SonicD

Demoted from sticky again !

--------------
IORR Links : Essential Studio Outtakes CDs : Audio - History of Rarest Outtakes : Audio

Quote
SonicDreamer
Hi All,

Re: Hackney Diamonds CD + Blu-Ray Boxset - BLACK FRIDAY DEAL

The Polydor Records UK online store has a 30% discount offer on this using code - 30OFF.

Even with the standard postage (£3.95), the £42.44 total is £12.00 cheaper than on Amazon UK aright now.

Polydor Records UK Online Store

Cheers,
SonicD

Cheers! ... and done!

video: [www.youtube.com]
Whole Wide World complete - live. Shared on FB Shidoobee page

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rtr
video: [www.youtube.com]
Whole Wide World complete - live. Shared on FB Shidoobee page

Fantastic! Hang Fire did a great job!
And the Stones of course!

Quote
rtr
video: [www.youtube.com]
Whole Wide World complete - live. Shared on FB Shidoobee page

Have you noticed, in the beginning, Keith got the same "pause" than when he played Satisfaction in Ed Sul show for the first time....... in 1966

(EDIT: not this one, but I will find !)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2023-11-21 23:32 by Jackda.

Quote
MadMax

Quote
MonkeyMan2000

Quote
MadMax
Anyone stating Depending On You is better than Streets Of Love or indeed Already Over Me is not getting what The Stones are about. Having said that it is a beautiful song but the lack of Charlie does a lot. Already over Me and SOL couldve been written by Gram Parsons and Marvin Gaye, larger than life ballads. As soon as Mess It Up and Live By The Sword kick in you know yer back in Stones Land. Quite a pity since I found Steve's drumming on Crosseyed Heart to be the best drumming (on record)regarding our boys since Voodoo Lounge.
On CH he emulates Charlie PERFECT! Dig him on TIC and MO too so it ain't an issue with Steve for me.
So proud of the fact that HD got to number 1 in my country and numerous others, it just ain't the same without Charlie.

Huh? The first time I heard the Depending on You leak, I thought that it was one of the Charlie tracks! From the first fill to the hi hat, I don't think I've heard a better Charlie impression from Steve. On many other tunes like Driving Me Too Hard he's also very near Charlie's style while on Crosseyed Heart he plays Winos-style.

Come on mate, CH is full of those Charlie hi-hat syncops he started to do in the mid-70's (ADTL during the '78 tour and after being the most glorius example but there are 100s).

On HD the drums are more plain rock drums (indeed more Winos-like if you want).
Anyone not noticing this is just not paying attention to the drums. Anyway I love Steve's drumming just would have loved a more Crosseyed Heart approach to HD as well.

Why do you say Jordan does the Charlie hi-hat/snare thing and then say that it sounds like "plain rock drums"?

YOU are not paying attention.

Steve Jordan did not play one hi-hat and snare at the same time ever. He honored Charlie like you can’t believe and put his own swag into it in a way that only he could. I think about how hard Steve hits, and the guitars have to be stronger. The band sounds strong because they have to be right up with Steve. Steve set his cymbals all the way on the right, behind him, because Charlie had set up that way to get the cymbals out of the way so he could see Keith. And that’s a hard way to play; it’s like he was making it harder for himself. And he didn’t care because he wanted to honor Charlie and have an eyeline on Keith.
- Andrew Watt, September 2023

[timeisonourside.com]

I've been finding HACKEY DIAMONDS to be the most interesting album they've released since TATTOO YOU in an overall sense: it's the most diverse album since SOME GIRLS in regard to genres but it's their most solid LP in regard to quality like TATTOO YOU has, where there's no skipping anything.

Fortunately they didn't dive into the modern production of things, making things sound all whatever screwed up - it's real. There's low end feedback captured (Dreamy Skies), weird timings (Angry), brilliant layering (Get Close, Depending On You) and the roll (Driving Me Too Hard).

And of course, that Stones thump (Angry, Bight My Head Off, Mess It Up, WWW).

This is a fantastic album.