Blur frontman Damon Albarn has criticised The Rolling Stones for using Hackney as a marketing tool for their latest album, Hackney Diamonds, and accused the band of objectifying Sydney Sweeney in the music video for their track ‘Angry’.
The legendary rock group scored a number one with their latest album in October. The Stones announced Hackney Diamonds at a special event at the Hackney Empire, where they were joined on-stage by Jimmy Fallon and rolled out the red carpet.
In a new interview with the French publication Les Inrockuptibles, the Britpop icon stated: “My family lives in Hackney and the way they showed up at the Hackney Empire venue really pissed me off. They’ve never did a thing in Hackney, they’ve never played there, never contributed to anything. They just showed up. It’s all nonsense.”
Albarn continued: “I listened to their new song and watched this horrible music video showing them at different stages of their lives on billboards. And this young woman objectified. What the hell is this? There’s something completely disconnected.”
Criticising the band further, Albarn added: “I did all sorts of things, whereas they’ve never been anything other than the Rolling Stones. I love the idea of devoting your life to one thing, in search of the sublime. But the truth is, they’ve become worse.”
“Worse at persisting to stay themselves. That’s something I don’t understand. Making exactly the same music but not that good. There must be no joy in doing something like this,” he concluded.
In the same interview, Albarn reflected on his recent tour and album with Blur, which he described as a “beautiful success”. However, he also explained why he was not in a rush to perform or make music with the band again.
“It is time to wrap up this campaign. It’s too much for me,” Albarn said. “It was the right thing to do and an immense honour to play these songs again, spend time with these guys, make an album, blah-blah-blah,” he added.
