Level 1 — Absolute Beginner
The Rolling Stones are a famous rock band. They are making a new album. The album is called Foreign Tongues.
The new album comes out on July 10, 2026. It is their 25th British studio album. A man named Andrew Watt helped make it, and the band recorded it at Metropolis Studios in West London.
Some famous friends play music on the album. They are Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, Robert Smith, and Chad Smith. The album also has one song with Charlie Watts, the band's old drummer, who died in 2021.
Before the album came out, the band shared two songs. One song is called In the Stars. Another song is called Jealous Lover.
- band
- a group of people who play music together
- album
- a collection of songs released together
- song
- a piece of music with words
- drummer
- a person who plays the drums
- famous
- known by many people
- friend
- a person you like and trust
- music
- sounds made by instruments or voices
- guest
- a person who visits or joins for a short time
Level 2 — Elementary
The Rolling Stones, one of the most famous rock bands in the world, are releasing a new studio album called Foreign Tongues on July 10, 2026. It will be their 25th British studio album.
The album was produced by Andrew Watt, who also produced the band's 2023 album, Hackney Diamonds. The Rolling Stones recorded Foreign Tongues at Metropolis Studios in West London.
Several well-known musicians appear as guests on the album, including Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, Robert Smith, and Chad Smith. The album also includes a track recorded with longtime Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, taken from the band's final recording session with him in 2021, before he died.
The band released two singles ahead of the album. The lead single, In the Stars, came out on May 5, 2026, as a double A-side with Rough and Twisted. A second single, Jealous Lover, followed on June 26, 2026.
- studio album
- a collection of songs recorded in a studio and released together
- producer
- a person who oversees and shapes the recording of music
- guest musician
- a performer who contributes to someone else's recording
- single
- a song released separately, often before an album
- double A-side
- a single release with two songs treated as equally important
- recording session
- a period of time when musicians record music together
- longtime
- having lasted or existed for a long time
- release
- to make something available to the public
Level 3 — Intermediate
The Rolling Stones will release Foreign Tongues, their 25th British studio album, on July 10, 2026, marking another chapter in the band's decades-long recording career. The album was produced by Andrew Watt, who also helmed the band's acclaimed 2023 release, Hackney Diamonds, and it was recorded at Metropolis Studios in West London.
Foreign Tongues features an array of guest contributions, including appearances from Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, Robert Smith, and Chad Smith. Perhaps most poignantly, the album also includes a track recorded with the band's longtime drummer, Charlie Watts, drawn from the group's final recording session with him in 2021, before his death.
Two singles have already previewed the record. The lead single, In the Stars, arrived on May 5, 2026, as a double A-side release paired with Rough and Twisted, and a second single, Jealous Lover, followed on June 26, 2026.
Producer Andrew Watt has described the album's sound as rawer and livelier and jammier than Hackney Diamonds, explaining that the band tracked the record using a live-studio approach that favored spontaneous performance over polish.
- acclaimed
- widely praised for quality
- poignant
- evoking a keen sense of sadness or regret
- spontaneous
- done or occurring without planning, natural and unforced
- helm
- to be in charge of directing something
- contribution
- something given or added as part of a larger effort
- preview
- an advance look or listen at something before its full release
- polish
- a high degree of refinement or finish
- decades-long
- continuing or lasting for many decades
Level 4 — Advanced
The Rolling Stones will unveil Foreign Tongues, their 25th British studio album, on July 10, 2026, a release that extends a recording lineage stretching back more than six decades. Produced by Andrew Watt, who also steered the band's 2023 outing Hackney Diamonds, the record was tracked at Metropolis Studios in West London.
The album's roster of collaborators is notably eclectic, drawing contributions from Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, Robert Smith, and Chad Smith. Its most elegiac inclusion, however, is a track built around a performance by the band's longtime drummer, Charlie Watts, salvaged from the group's final recording session with him in 2021, shortly before his death.
Two singles have already served as harbingers of the full release. The lead single, In the Stars, surfaced on May 5, 2026, as a double A-side paired with Rough and Twisted, followed by a second single, Jealous Lover, on June 26, 2026.
Watt has characterized the record's aesthetic as rawer and livelier and jammier than its predecessor, attributing the shift to a live-studio methodology that prized unrehearsed, in-the-moment interplay over meticulous overdubbing.
- eclectic
- deriving from a wide range of sources or styles
- elegiac
- expressing sorrowful or wistful remembrance
- harbinger
- a person or thing that signals the approach of something
- aesthetic
- a set of principles underlying the appearance or style of a work
- overdubbing
- the process of adding additional recorded parts to an existing track
- predecessor
- a thing that came before another in a sequence
- lineage
- an ancestral line or sequence of development
- interplay
- the way in which two or more things interact with each other
