The 15 Best Rolling Stones Songs of the 21st Century

Compared to their first decade as a band, The Rolling Stones have not been a particularly prolific outfit during the 21st century, with just three studio albums of original material (plus four new songs on the 2002 compilation Forty Licks) and one collection of blues covers. Fifty-eight tracks in total.

But they’ve adhered to the adage of quality over quantity.

Each of the group’s releases since 2000 — A Bigger Bang in 2005, the Grammy-winning Blue & Lonesome in 2016, 2023’s Grammy-winning Hackney Diamonds and the new Foreign Tongues — have been worth waiting for. The latter-period Stones are still capable of raising a ruckus, and do just that more often than not. Keith Richards and Ron Wood seem even more refined and instinctual in their guitar tandem, and there’s a reflectiveness and even sometimes tenderness that have worked their way into Mick Jagger’s (and occasionally Richards’) lyrics, acknowledging that the Stones understand they are men of a certain age  but also that they have an opportunity to define how men of a certain age can sound in a rock ‘n’ roll context.

We’re down one Stone, of course, since Charlie Watts’ passing in 2021. But he’s been present on the two albums since, both as a player and as a spirit guide that his mates continue to honor. It’s hard for any act that’s been around this long to add songs to its iconic pantheon, but we consider these 15 to be the key tracks to check out from this century — so far.