Hidden Gems - Album Review

If you’re a rock fan and you’re not familiar with The Blue Stones, then it’s time to change that (Yes, there was a rock/stone pun hidden in that sentence, but I’ll save us both the agony). The fittingly named blues rock duo

-- comprised of Tarek Jafar at vocals & guitar, and Justin Tessier on drums -- made themselves known with the 2018 debut Black Holes, but The Blue Stones’ sophomore release Hidden Gems is more than a reflection of its title. Front-to-back, this record bleeds with tenacious flavor that the band uncovered and polished so masterfully.

Truth be told, I knew very little about The Blue Stones when Hidden Gems was released in March. I knew their lead single “Shakin’ Off the Rust” was a catchy tune with shades of The Black Keys blurred in the guitars, but that begins and ends my list of prior knowledge on the band. In my initial listen of Hidden Gems, there was a resonance in Jafar’s vocals that made each song perch on the shoulders of the track before it, standing as a whole with a captivating sound and mesmerizing style.

Opening with the powerful “Lights On”, the aforementioned “Shakin’ Off the Rust”, and the dusky yet groovy “One by One”, the tone is stamped from the beginning. The semi-R&B “Careless” and unapologetic “Grim” shows how The Blue Stones can spice their own sound up without diverging from it. Give “L.A. Afterlife” a listen, and you’ll hear confidence lacing with a comfortable vibe that a rock band shouldn’t have been able to capture so early in their career. By the time you’ve made it seven songs in, you’re already hooked, but once the killer riff of “Spirit” announces itself, you’re already snatched out of the water and pulled into the boat. “Make This Easy” hypnotizes and swallows you whole, and it’s almost an insult to categorize it as a ballad. The album doesn’t have time to slow down until the final song, “Oceans”, echoes out into a fleeting numbness that left me unable and unwilling to stop the album from starting over.

As with any other band, there are comparisons you could make for The Blue Stones – the son of The Black Keys (that inherits the “The Color Nouns” name formula), younger brother of Royal Blood, more-adamant cousin of Highly Suspect – but the truth is, The Blue Stones aren’t anybody but themselves. Hidden Gems brings something deliciously familiar to rock, yet far different than what is already offered. The Blue Stones found an identity to gravitate around, yet have enough orbit to pull new listeners in while keeping existing fans dancing along their path. The true “hidden gems” aren’t the obviously fashionable songs on the record, but are instead the band themselves. Once underground but now on the cusp of the surface, The Blue Stones are only a few brushes away from the world discovering them and admiring their glisten. Truth be told, the dust may be what makes them so alluring.

Top 3 songs: Spirit, One By One, Oceans

Rating: 9.5 overused rock puns/ 10