My review of "Ursa Major"

Ok, I promise this is the last post about Thrd Eye Blind for a while. Seriously. I promise.



Plenty of bands can do good songs about lost love. Plenty of bands can sing well about unrequited love. But I wonder if anyone can do songs about fleeting love - the kind that seems perfect if only for the briefest of moments - as well as Third Eye Blind.

Fans of the band are well-aware of that kind of sentiment. It seems like all 3EB's best songs are about a moment, now past, where everything was perfect. This kind of love is always impossible to hold on to (and frequently Jenkin's lyrics express sadness at being unable to get back to how it used to be), yet also impossible to forget

For their fourth studio album, Third Eye Blind goes right back to what works best for them, right from the opening lines of the first track ("All I want right now is the time when we slept on the floor"), the extremely-catchy "Can You Take Me". The theme continues through the entire album, and whether all the songs are directed towards the same person (like on "Out of the Vein") or a series of crushes and singular moments, it doesn't really matter.

The feeling is most powerfully expressed in "Bonfire", which tells of a one night chance encounter between two people while sitting around (surprise, surprise) a bonfire and getting high. Jenkins wonders about the possibilities this could hold for the future ("we could live like kings, if we take a risk, or we could live in doubt"), but things don't seem to work out in the end. Even after the night ends, Jenkins says he will "keep burning on and on", for the love that might have been. The twangy guitar in the beginning does a great job of setting the scene and the whistling at the end is both sad and haunting. It's my favorite song on the album, but there is plenty of competition.

The next track, "A Sharp Knife", is the most bitter song on the album, but also contains some of the best lyrics. Jenkins sings at the end of the second verse: "I think there's a reason, at least there's a sign. And all that we call chaos, I'll say it's by design, but I'm just lying". The guitar work throughout the song does an excellent job of contrasting the introspection during the verses and the obvious anger in the chorus.

The end of the album is noticeably quieter and more introspective than the first few songs -- going back to the tradition they established on their first two albums. While the conclusion of this album might not quite stack up to the final four tracks on their self-titled debut ("I Want You", "The Background", "Motorcycle Drive-by", and "God of Wine"), the trifecta of "Water Landing", "The Dao of Saint Paul", and "Monotov's Private Opera" comes pretty close. The first of those three is about the last moments before a plane crashes, as a metaphor for the uselessness of "chasing after you". There's three very distinct parts of the song -- all quite different from one another -- but the music and lyrics in all three parts are fantastic, and the end of the song will get stuck in your head for sure. Both "Saint Paul" and "Monotov" lack a real defining moment that you won't be able to forget, but they are very well done even if it takes a few listens to really get into them.

I do have a few minor complaints though. The band said numerous times that this album was going to be more political than their previous releases, and they certainly did follow through. While "Don't Believe A Word" was written as an attack on the last President ("I hate you and your cowboy boots" are among the many anti-Bush references in the song), its about eight months too late for that. Still, it's a catchy tune, but the lyrics sound kind of forced at times, which is not good for a band that has found a way to make all kinds of odd lines fit smoothly. Also, it shouldn't have been the first single; that honor should have gone to either "Summer Town" or "Can You Take Me". Third Eye Blind should probably stop trying to write protest songs, because the other overtly political song on the album is "About to Break", which is easily the most ignorable track.

Some other random thoughts:

- "Summer Town" is the obvious heir to the well known "Semi-Charmed Life" and "Never Let You Go", with the mix of fun lyrics about a summer house at the beach and the hook-driven sound. Jenkins busts out his unique combo of rock and rap on the track as well; he references the "5 5 5 deal", M.I.A ("wanna be a hustla...make a paper plane and fly away"), and Nabokov (one of the "dead Russian authors" from "Narcolepsy", perhaps?), all while chasing after "the JAP in the little sundress".

- "Why Can't You Be" is another track that cuts right back to the roots of the band, as it is clearly born from the same loins as "How's it Gonna Be" and "Deep Inside of You". In fact, the connection is so strong that I would swear you can hear the guitar in the background playing a couple of cords from "Deep Inside" near the end of the song.

- The the first verse and chorus of "The Dao of Saint Paul" sound almost exactly like a Vanessa Carlton song I like ("Come Undone"), but since she and Jenkins dated for a while (and he helped produce her last album), I wonder if that's not an accident.

- All in all, the album leaves you feeling a little sad, but I think that's how it is meant to be. It does end on a hopeful note, as the end of "Montov's Private Opera" -- with the subtle piano and the choir singing -- seems to be a peaceful resolution to the clash of desire and frustration that carries the majority of the songs.

Third Eye Blind Countdown

Third Eye Blind's new album will be released exactly one week from today. After waiting six years since their last full-length release, I wanted to do something to appropriately honor them and to build some more anticipation for "Ursa Major".

So, all this week, I will be counting down my Top 10 favorite lyrics from 3EB's proud history. It was not an easy task to narrow down the list to only 10, however, so today I will offer some of the great lyrics that just missed the cut.

As a note: this list is not counting down my favorite songs, but rather my favorite lines from those songs. I thought this might be more interesting than just listing the best 10 songs the band has done. As a result, however, some fantastic songs, such as "God of Wine" or "Losing A Whole Year" did not make the Top 10, because while they might be great songs, there really isn't any outstanding single line or lines. But not every list can be perfect.

Honorable Mentions -

God of Wine:

"Every glamorous sunrise
throws the planets out of line.
The stars shine out of whack,
a fraudulent zodiac.
And the god of wine is crouched down in my room.
You let me down, I said it.
Now I'm going down,
and you're not even around."


Losing A Whole Year:

"Rich daddy left you with a parachute,
your voice sounds like money and your face is cute,
but your daddy left you with no love,
and you touch everything with a velvet glove.
Now you want to try the life of sin,
you want to be down with the down and in.
Always copping my truths,
I kinda get the feeling like I'm being used,
And now I realize that you never heard one goddamned word I ever said."


Good For You:

"I feel you cross my mind in disarray,
an intoxicated ricochet"


Another Life:

"Time goes by and I realize that I'm alright,
You thought nothing would be the same,
but life comes 'round again.
Quick wits and all curious,
caught up with what you say,
and makes me grab the time,
before it slips away"

Coming tomorrow: The countdown begins with numbers 9 and 10.

Omnibus

I haven't done much posting on here for the past few days, and since I updated you on my personal life below, here's some other important information that you might have missed during the past few days:

Jacob Sullum, a blogger for Reason, is apparently a beer snob - and I couldn't agree with him more. Really, Mr. President? Bud Light? What makes it even worse is that he obviously made that choice (or, more correctly, his image consultants did) because you want to look more appealing to the average middle class beer-drinking America: "Look, Obama isn't an Ivy League intellectual snob, he drinks crappy beer just like you!" The sad part is that they believe Joe the-middle-class-soon-to-be-out-of-work-beer-drinking-average-dude is more likely to say "I like Obama because he drinks Bud Light like me" than "I hate Obama's because he's raising taxes", and they are probably right.

***

The "Cash for Clunkers" program is the definition of a successful failure, and even if you knew nothing about it, I bet you could guess that only a government idea could become the epitome of an oxy-moron. I guess no one in Washington bothered to think that giving people free money for a new car would get an overwhelming response. Now they are all acting surprised that so many people took advantage of the offer, and riding in to rescue a program that was a mistake in the first place. Remind me again - why does someone else having a crappy car give them a right to my tax money so they can get a better car? Did they pay help pay for my car? I don't remember that happening.

***

Interesting fact about some new polls (and for the record, polls like this are crazy this far in advance of the next Presidential election): Mitt Romney is seeing both his "favorable" and "unfavorable" numbers decline. In other words, fewer people like him....and fewer people dislike him. How does that happen? Are people just completely apathetic about him? Maybe that's good for him, since every member of the GOP who gets attention is getting it for the wrong reasons (paging Jindal....Stanford....Palin....)

***

Arlen Specter, also known as that Senator from Pennsylvania who flipped parties after the Democrats took control of everything in January, got loudly booed this weekend in Philadelphia. I can't wait to help kick him out of office next November. I'd vote for just about anyone over Specter at this point.

***

Brand New is set to release a new album - so does that make Emo kids happy? or does it make them sadder? Does it make them happy to be feeling sadder, or sadder to be feeling happy? Will I ever understand Emo kids? Maybe the band is growing up a little, because there are 11 tracks on the album and only 19 words (total) in the 11 names. A few years ago, 19 words would get Brand New through about two song titles, if that. This is the band that has given us such verbose gems as:

"Good to Know That if I Ever Need Attention All I Have to Do is Die" (that's 16 words right there)
"Okay, I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't"
"I Will Play My Game Beneath the Spin Light"

Though I must give a little credit. I've been busting on Brand New for a long time (and mostly they deserve it) but "Play Crack the Sky" is a really good, haunting song.

***

The Dallas Cowboy's new stadium (which cost well over $1 Billion to build) will have luxury boxes where you can order pizza. The catch? That round slab of dough, cheese, and sauce (no toppings) will cost you $90. In my opinion, anyone who is paying that much for a pizza needs to seriously re-examine their lives.

Of course, to even rent one of those luxury boxes you have to pay $800,000 a year (and that doesn't actually include tickets to games), so maybe $90 for a pizza, $66 for a 12-pack of beer, and $22 for four Red Bulls is just small change. All I know is that if I had $800K to spend, I wouldn't use it to go see the Dallas Cowboys.

***

Cab drivers in New York City are pretty much openly ignoring the cell phone use ban. This isn't much of a surprise though, since they already ignore most other traffic laws.

***

This is pretty cool (even if it did come from the New York Times), a chart showing what people are doing at any given time during the day. It also makes a pretty background for your desktop.

***

Let the countdown begin - exactly 2 weeks until Third Eye Blind's new album is finally released.