SOUND JUDGEMENT

The albums of the last 12 months

Here’s a look back at some of the biggest albums of the past year ahead of a batch of new releases coming in 2024

HACKNEY DIAMONDS The Rolling Stones ★★★★★

Sir Mick Jagger counts the band in before an instantly familiar Keith Richards riff and the Rolling Stones are up and running. Single Angry opens the band’s first studio album of original songs in 18 years.

After 24 studio albums and numerous live sets and compilations, does the world need another one?

Hackney Diamonds has the kind of megastar guests only they can attract – Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Lady Gaga. Charlie Watts features on the catchy Mess It Up and Live By The Sword, the final tracks he recorded before his death in August 2021. And Bill Wyman is back on bass for the first time in more than 30 years on Live By The Sword.

Could it be their last? It is their best since 1972’s Exile On Main St and would be a fitting farewell.

SUBTRACT Ed Sheeran ★★★★✩

Billed as the most personal album Ed

Sheeran has ever released, Subtract was written against a backdrop of perhaps the most difficult year of his life, in which his pregnant wife was diagnosed with a tumour and his close friend, Jamal

Edwards, died.

Tracks like Dusty are inspired by his morning routine with his daughter Lyra, while Eyes Closed tackles his intense grief following the death of Edwards.

TENSION Kylie Minogue ★★★★✩

The 16th studio album from Kylie reveals why the

Australian hitmaker has had a number one UK record in five consecutive decades and is the master of reinvention.

Tension is not just another pop music oeuvre from the 55-year-old singer-songwriter but commits itself to embrace the earnest disco-influenced styles of Robyn and Dua Lipa through dancefloor tracks and joyful electro songs.