Foreign Tongues, the new album from the Rolling Stones, is merely the latest in the string of late-career Stones records that are way, way more impressive than they had to be. The LP came out in July, but its rollout isn’t finished yet. Foreign Tongues did not feature the strutting Mick Jagger/Keith Richards duet “Bad Luck Hideaway,” one of the songs that the band recorded with their late drummer Charlie Watts, who passed away in 2021. The song did appear as a bonus track on digital editions, but it wasn’t previously on streaming services.
Yesterday, the Stones gave “Bad Luck Hideaway” a proper release as the kinda-sorta B-side of the Stones’ Foreign Hands track “Mr. Charm,” which now has its own music video. The Stones themselves don’t appear in the Henry Scholfield-directed “Mr. Charm” clip. Instead, it’s one more Stones video that features an extremely foxy movie star. (The last one was the “In The Stars” clip with Odessa A’zion.) This time around, the star is Alexander Skarsgård, who continues to truly hold it down for tall, blonde middle-aged white guys. I salute him.
Skarsgård is having a very busy year. He has already hosted SNL and starred in Pillion and Charli XCX’s The Moment, and he’ll soon appear in Wicker and something called The Wolf Will Tear Your Immaculate Hands. (Pillion is technically a 2025 movie, but it didn’t get wide release until this year.) He’s got a music-video history, having starred in clips from Lady Gaga, Cut Copy, and most recently These New Puritans.
The “Mr. Charm” video takes place at one of those sweaty old-school desert-highway diners that only seem to exist in movies, commercials, and music videos. The frequently shirtless Skarsgård dances around with all the other extravagantly hot people on the premises. If he’s the titular character, he’s well cast. Below. check out “Bad Luck Hideaway” and the “Mr. Charm” clip.
Foreign Tongues is out now on Capitol.
