Nineteen ninety-seven wasn’t that long ago, but in the world of
\npop music it may as well have been the dark ages – it was around
\nthat time that the “adult alternative” format was starting to
\nexplode, and with it the success of oodles of “sincere” bands,
\ndrawing their inspiration from the dying grunge movement but
\nsounding comparatively glossed over, much like what the “new
\nromantics” (think Spandau Ballet, Flock of Seagulls) relation was
\nto punk rock. And unsurprisingly, flavors of the month such as
\nTonic, Fuel, Spacehog, and Dishwalla have all gone the way of
\nSpandau Ballet, being remembered for one or two glorious hits, but
\nlittle else, their CDs flooding cutout bins everywhere.<\/p>\n
Also among those sincere bands was Third Eye Blind, whose debut
\nsingle “Semi-Charmed Life” was catchy and cute, but had all the
\nmakings of ’90s ephemera, and none of the makings of a band that
\nwould make a lasting impression. Then something odd happened. A
\nsecond single (“Jumper”) began to get some airplay. And now a
\nsecond album has already churned forth one mega-hit, in “Never Let
\nYou Go.”<\/p>\n
Still, there was every reason to be skeptical when first popping
\nthe new disc
\nBlue<\/i>, which I gritted my teeth and shelled the dough out for
\nafter the ability to finally admit to myself that I liked “Never
\nLet You Go,” into the CD player. But much to my surprise \/ chagrin,
\nI now have to admit something even more unbelievable. This is a
\nvery, very good band – a band that is pushing the boundaries of
\npower pop as we know it.<\/p>\n
We’ve all heard the single 78,000 times by now, so it’ll suffice
\nto say it is, as of May 2000, the most infectious mega-hit of the
\nstill-young decade. It’s equally as powerful as a “Jesse’s Girl” or
\na “There She Goes,” so I have a feeling it’s here to stay forever –
\nit’ll show up on oldies stations everywhere in 30 years. It would
\nbe reasonable to expect “An Ode To Maybe” to be the second single –
\nit’s the second poppiest song on the disc, and boasts another
\nextremely infectious yet simplistic two chord theme. But perhaps
\nthe most telling line on
\nBlue<\/i> is from that song – “If I could bottle my hopes in a
\nstore bought scent \/ they’d be nutmeg and peach and they’d pay the
\nrent.” 3EB singer \/ writer Stephan Jenkins is already a master at
\ncreating music that both pays the rent and is – dare we say –
\nexperimental.<\/p>\n
Nowhere is he more daring thematically than on “Wounded,” which
\nis a frightening and gripping letter from a man to a girlfriend who
\nhas been attacked. “We’re missing you” gets repeated throughout the
\nsong, which is interesting – the narrator misses his girlfriend as
\n“one of the gang” as well as a lover – and could very well be
\nautobiographical. But whether it is or not, you’ve got to admire
\nthe soul bearing.<\/p>\n
We only a get few seconds until “10 Days Late” comes on, the
\ntitle of which speaks for itself. “Camouflage” is a wistful take on
\nloneliness, and “1000 Julys” is a steamy paean to infatuation. In
\ngeneral, the swagger, anger and bitterness of Third Eye Blind’s
\nfirst album has been replaced by a far wider variety of emotions of
\nthemes, a good sign of a maturing writer.<\/p>\n
There are some wild things going on musically as well. “Deep
\nInside Of You” recalls early U2 somewhat in its torch ballad
\napproach. “Farther” and “Camouflage” both pile on the echoing
\neffects, the former with an up-close approach (think Paul McCartney
\nhome demos), the latter just the opposite. “1000 Julys” is nearly
\nheavy metal – not Seattle-esque flannel heavy metal, but
\npoodle-haired, spandexed ’80s heavy metal. Only Jenkins’ voice
\nitself keeps it from sounding like the second coming of Motley
\nCrue. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but only a bit.<\/p>\n
Things do go a bit too far with the game of spot-the-influence
\non “The Red Summer Sun,” which boasts a mellotron that can’t help
\nbut remind us of Led Zeppelin’s “Rain Song,” and then in the
\nchorus, Jenkins screeches out his best Robert Plant, so blatantly,
\nthat he has no qualms about the fact that the first line of said
\nchorus is “been a long time, been a long time!” Coincidence?<\/p>\n
If there’s any problem with
\nBlue<\/i>, it’s what that Plant imitation symbolizes – Third Eye
\nBlind are trying a bit too hard to be epic, and falling (but only
\nlightly) on their faces. There are about 55 minutes of good ideas
\non this album. Unfortunately, it is 70 minutes long. Repetitive
\nfragments like those in “Red Summer Sun,” “Camouflage” and “Slow
\nMotion” drag on for too long, and the amateur scientist sentiments
\nof “Darwin” should never have seen the light of day.<\/p>\n
But we shouldn’t let the failed experiments overshadow the
\nsuccessful ones. This may be as good as this band will ever get,
\nbut if it is, we can always remember the old joke: What do you call
\nthe person who finishes at the bottom of his class in the worst
\nmedical school in the country? Doctor. What do you call the least
\nadventurous, shortest lived band that made a few catchy singles and
\ntwo good albums? Rock stars. Third Eye Blind has already escaped
\nbeing our generation’s Flock of Seagulls – they may yet be our
\ngeneration’s Men at Work. But it beats having to work for a
\nliving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":25413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6067],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36619","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-third-eye-blind","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36619"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36619"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}