It's a busy day for The Rolling Stones, who today officially release their new album, ‘Blue And Lonesome’, their first in over a decade.
A collection of covers of rare blues cuts, it was recorded over three days last December, and retains all the spontaneity and vitality of those impromptu sessions – as Clash's review attests – wherein Jagger and co. fully cut loose in intimate settings with material by artists they clearly cherish.
Adding to the flurry of excitement around its release, the band have simultaneously dropped a video for one such track – their swaggering take on Eddie Taylor’s 1955 number, ‘Ride ’Em On Down’ (itself an update on Bukka White’s ‘Shake ’Em On Down’ from 1937) – starring alt. Hollywood icon, Kristen Stewart.
"It didn't take much more than a few words to get me amped on the idea," Stewart admits. "The Stones. A ’65 mustang. Alone in Los Angeles. And the shoot was just as dreamy as the idea. We tore LA apart in a day and we had one hell of a soundtrack."
As we follow her cruising the golden streets of a seemingly post-apocalyptic LA (and cavorting at a gas station, as one does), Stewart’s intense smouldering attitude perfectly embodies the song’s poised assurance and blustering cool. “Seems like somebody’s gonna take my shit,” Jagger sings, as Stewart’s icy stare focuses.
She’s not the first actress to accept the offer a starring role for the Stones – in 1997, Angelina Jolie appeared in the video for ‘Anybody Seen My Baby?’, taken from that year’s ‘Bridges To Babylon’ LP.
Similarly brooding, as you can see in the exclusive stills above, Stewart here – dressed plainly, yet radiating pure edge – is more subtly subversive; a devil in blue jeans. We're sure the Stones would approve.
Directed by Francois Rousselet and shot by Newton Thomas Sigel, whose previous work includes Drive and Usual Suspects, the video is available to see here.