The Blue Stones aren’t just a two-piece band—they’re actually more like two bands in one. On stage, Windsor, Ontario’s Tarek Jafar and Justin Tessier can erect a massive cinder block wall of noise with just their guitar and drums, handily earning a spot in the lineage of 21st-century blues-rock power duos. On record, however, The Blue Stones are a decidedly different beast. With 2021’s Hidden Gems, they revealed themselves to be pop omnivores as well, tricking out their tunes with vocal cadences, textural details, and rhythmic tics informed by modern R&B and rap. That please-everyone approach has made them rock-radio fixtures on both sides of the border. But for their third album, “We thought we would do something that was accurate to the energy and the sound of our live show,” Jafar tells Apple Music. “Just a punchier, more in-your-face record.” Mission accomplished. With veteran producer Joe Chiccarelli (The Strokes, The White Stripes) behind the boards, Pretty Monster doesn’t so much abandon the pop-oriented elements of The Blue Stones’ previous records as more seamlessly fuse them into their brawny grooves. It also amplifies the emotional qualities that have always made the duo more than just rowdy riff-mongers. As Tessier explains, “In the past, a lot of the songs were like, ‘OK, take this personal experience and extrapolate for other people to fill in the blanks with their experience.’ But on this one, we encouraged Tarek to sing about them as personal experiences. The specifics become more understandable, and you don’t have to fill in the blanks.” Here, Jafar and Tessier peel back the layers of Pretty Monster, track by track. “Healing” Tarek Jafar: “This is a song that’s just about feeling content and feeling closure, and finally being able to push onwards. We were coming out of a pandemic where we were all stuck indoors, wondering what our next move was going to be. A lot of people were going through things on top of the pandemic as well. I was also going through a breakup, and this song was about getting to that point where you could finally look yourself in the mirror and be like, ‘You know what—you’re good. You’ve made it through, and you’re ready to take on what’s next.’” “Don’t Miss” TJ: “While I was writing the song, there was this short film playing in my mind of this guy who is at a bar, and he’s had a few too many drinks, and he’s got his shades on inside, and it’s last call, and everybody gets kicked out into the street. So, this song began as this drunken, stumbling musical as seen through the lens of this drunk idiot who thinks he’s the best thing in the world. But it’s really a song about feeling confident and feeling like no matter what you do, you win. It’s an anthem for those people who don’t really think that you’re worth the hype. This song is the little smirk that you give them when they think that.” “Cards Are Down” TJ: “This about putting everything on the line for something that you’re very passionate about. In this case, it’s our careers as musicians. There’s a lot of do-or-die moments in our career as artists: ‘How long are you going to do this until you decide maybe there’s something else out there that you want to pursue?’ You’re constantly questioning yourself. And we continue doing this because we love doing this. But I also wanted to shine a light on some of those doubtful feelings, and this is about finding the strength to be like, ‘I’m going to lay it all on the line. All my cards are down—you can see my entire hand.’” “Good Ideas” Justin Tessier: “This one was co-written by Drew Fulk [aka WZRD BLD] and Tarek. They did the bass track for this in LA, and when I got it, I was like, ‘OK, how do I expand on this and put my own spin on it?’ For me, that meant following the vocal cadence with kicks and snares. It already had this more electronic inspiration before I had really sunk my teeth into it, and I’ve really been getting into a lot more electronic music, so I’m happy to lend that dance vibe to things. I thought it needed that kind of push to keep things moving along and keep it exciting.” “Stay With Me” TJ: “This is the rocker. We leave a lot of the song-choice decisions to a committee of ourselves and our two managers, and this is one where [Justin and I] had to fight for it to stay on the album because we love it so much. And then we experimented with what would become this cool cyber-punky outro that we added to the song with 808s and a take of Justin improvising on the drums” "What’s It Take to Be Happy" TJ: “This song is in a major key, which is different for us. I took a whimsical approach to the lyrics and the composition of the song. It’s about this endless search for what’s going to make you happy. You’re told the grass is greener, and there’s a certain element of success that you need to achieve, and after a while, it’s just exhausting. The song is about that chase, and it’s also about that final moment where you give up on all that superficial stuff and just carve your own path.” “Let Me Out” TJ: “On any album that we put together, there’s a whole range of places that we tend to go. But the one thing that does tie it all together is our rock ’n’ roll roots, and ‘Let Me Out’ is another example of that influence coming out.” JT: “When we were recording it, we didn’t have any cymbals set up. In the chorus, I’m riding on a double track that’s part cowbell and the other part of it is literally just a piece of 3/8-inch-thick sheet metal with a towel on it. We were noticing that so many people in hip-hop and pop were getting away from using cymbals, so we tried to follow that sort of philosophy.” “No Angels” TJ: “This was written in the summer, and you can probably tell I was very much vibing off of the weather—it’s got that funky groove. It’s always tough to take something that’s created and written in the box and give it an out-of-the-box treatment without losing the essence. But I think Joe helped us achieve this perfect balance of that pop-disco element and it still sounding like Tarek and Justin on the guitar and the drums.” “Camera Roll” TJ: "The process of getting over somebody is so long and disjointed. You might feel like you have closure after the first week, and then it hits you a month later. And now we have access to all these memories at our fingertips, and sometimes it’s hard to let go of them. So, for me, the moment when I was able to finally delete every photo off of my phone was my sign of closure and that I was ready to put a past relationship to bed.” “Dreams on Me” TJ: “On the early demo, I kept singing, ‘Put your drinks on me’ as the chorus. And when we took it to the studio to record, I just remember thinking, ‘Man, I don’t think we can write a song about somebody’s drink tab. Like, are we writing an anthem for douchebags?’ I actually asked a few of my close female friends, ‘How does this song make you feel? Is this a predatory song?’ They didn’t feel that was the case, but we both still felt we needed to change the message, and it actually ended up becoming something a lot more wholesome. It’s about how you feel in a relationship when you’re with somebody that you’re happy with. You want all of their dreams to be on you, and you want to help them achieve them.”