Rolling Stones to drop 25th studio album 'Foreign Tongues' on July 10

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — The Rolling Stones have set July 10 as the release date for their forthcoming album, 'Foreign Tongues,' the British rock institution announced on Tuesday.

It will be the group's 25th studio project and arrives under three years on from 'Hackney Diamonds,' the 2023 record that climbed to number one in more than a dozen countries and drew warm reviews from critics. That album had ended an 18-year gap between full-length releases for the band.

The announcement was made online on Tuesday and paired with a new single titled 'In The Stars.' On the band's Instagram page, a clip showed frontman Mick Jagger and co-founder Keith Richards, both aged 82, alongside 78-year-old bassist Ronnie Wood, at work inside a recording studio.

The three appeared at a promotional gathering in New York hosted by comedian Conan O'Brien, where they spoke about the new material and played previews of selected tracks for the audience.

'We're still having a lot of fun,' Jagger told the room, before adding, 'It's a lot of fun, but also a lot of concentration.'

O'Brien complimented the singer on the strength of his voice, telling him: 'There are people who, at a certain stage, their voice gets thin. Yours is absolutely impeccable, and there's such force. How do you do that?'

Jagger replied with a joke — 'Well, I was taking a lot more drugs in 1968' — drawing laughter from those in attendance, before offering a more measured answer: 'The secret is practice… it's simple.'

Andrew Watt, one of the producers behind the record, told AFP that he had relished the assignment, saying: 'I had the time of my life. I'm the biggest fan in the world.'

No concert tour was announced at the event. Several outlets have reported that touring was weighed by the band's camp but eventually shelved because of the members' ages and the health concerns involved.

'Foreign Tongues' is set to feature guest contributions from former Beatle Paul McCartney on bass, as well as The Cure's lead singer Robert Smith.

Rumours that a new album was on the horizon had been building since last month, when the Stones quietly issued a vinyl-only limited edition single under the pseudonym The Cockroaches — a name they have used previously to stage surprise gigs. The track, 'Rough And Twisted,' was distributed through a handful of record shops in the United Kingdom and priced at exactly £10.07 (US$13.64), a figure that led fans to deduce a July 10 release for the album.