When the Rolling Stones announced Hackney Diamonds — their first album of original material in 18 years — and released lead single “Angry,” the band teased some guests on the LP. Two of them converge on the Stones’ new single out today. “Sweet Sounds Of Heaven” is a gospel-inflected ballad that features both Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder.
Mick Jagger told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about featuring Gaga on the song:
“She’s a great singer and I’d never heard her sing quite that style before…just coming in the room and her just opening and seeing her bits and feeling her way and then getting more confident…then we did some tidying up and we were just in the overdub room, face-to-face, getting…the parts tight, and then being slightly competitive and screaming.
Jagger also offered this background on the making of the song:
It’s all played live…there’s that moment, especially in that session where we had Stevie, and you’re feeling your way out a little bit and then you do that soul ending, which is you do sometimes on stage where you stop and you start…we played it with Keith and Ronnie…but we hadn’t mixed it then, so then we mixed it, I mixed it with the mixer and Andy [Andrew Watt] and we were in three places. And then when we finished mixing it, we had a sort of three-way playback…And, ‘Wow, we finished it and it sounds really good, and we’re pleased with it.’ Because if we hadn’t been pleased with it, we’ve had to have change it…The other ones will come out. But choose a good balance of the songs you’ve recorded.”
“Sweet Sounds of Heaven” opens with an introductory piano followed by Mick Jagger singing. He takes his time singing each line as the piano and other instrumentals continue. “I hear the sweet, sweet sounds of Heaven Fallin’ down, fallin’ down to this earth I hear the sweet, sweetest sounds of Heaven Driftin’ down, driftin’ down to this earth”. This song is about peace and prosperity “Let no woman or child go hungry tonight Please protect us from the pain and the hurt, yeah”.
Everyone sings in the second verse; they sing about what it’s like to be in heaven itself. “I smell the sweet scents (Sweet)…Tumblin’ down to the earth (Oh)…The sweet sounds (Ooh, the sweet sounds) of children
And they’re praisin’ (Praisin’) The land of their birth (No)”. They sing about not being in danger, in this case, the underworld. “No, I’m not, not goin’ to Hell In some dusty motel And I’m not, not goin’ down In the dirt (Yes, yes, yes)”.
There is a theme of nature that becomes prevalent in the song. “You can’t have a light without a little shadow, yeah…I want to be drenched in the rain”. There’s more. “Let it burst (Let it burst) through the clouds (Through the clouds) And we all feel the heat Of the sun, yeah”. In addition, they sing about youth. “Let the old still believe that they’re young, yeah”. Part two is mostly gospel filler; chants and hymns that are meant to encourage praise from the audience. You have “yeah” and “come on” being repeated until the song ends. The song ends with “let me lay down and sleep”.
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