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Third Eye Blind - Ursa Major
| Latimesblogs |
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This San Francisco alt-rock outfit hasn't released a new studio album since 2003, back when it was still riding on the fumes of "Semi-Charmed Life," its late-'90s radio smash. But just as Weezer's cult classic "Pinkerton" eventually came to influence a generation of young emo bands, Third Eye Blind's music has over the intervening years become an unexpected touchstone for groups like Panic! at the Disco and Boys Like Girls -- acts that didn't even exist the last time Third Eye Blind was an aboveground concern. Perhaps it's that after-the-fact renown that's kept frontman Stephan Jenkins in fighting form, for rather than seeming like an aging has-been on "Ursa Major," Jenkins instead comes on like he never left the scene. In fact, with its pulsating rhythms and crisp guitar fuzz, the new record actually does a better job of extending the band's early work than did its lukewarm previous effort, "Out of the Vein."...full text |
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| Slantmagazine |
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Perhaps no band better encapsulated '90s radio than San Fran pop punksters Third Eye Blind, whose infectious, distortion-drenched, climb-up-climb-down melodies practically knighted them as guardians of anthemic airwave rock. Frontman Stephan Jenkins charmed his audiences with a poor man's Bono routine, stretching into raspy vocal lisps and sandpapery falsettos whenever the melodic fuzz warranted. Wisely, the trio's fourth studio album, Ursa Major, isn't so much an emulation of that bygone shtick as it is a celebration of it—a familiar, mindlessly fun ode to commercial alt-rock. Easily digested but not so easily forgotten, Ursa Major is tongue-in-cheek, candy-coated fare that thrives on the inevitability of listeners humming its contagious refrains days later, no matter how inanely predictable the tunes initially seemed. To wit, lead single "Don't Believe a Word" is a heavy-handed political diatribe that manages to provide all sorts of readymade sing-along bliss in spite of its inherent triteness....full text |
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| Billboard |
| After a few false starts and pushed-back release dates, Third Eye Blind's fourth full-length release, "Ursa Major," will finally see the daylight. Six years have passed since the release of the rock band's last album, "Out of the Vein," but the new set finds the group is still writing upbeat and off-kilter pop songs. The first single, "Don't Believe a Word," is outwardly political yet vintage Third Eye Blind, complete with singer/guitarist Stephan Jenkins' trademark hip-hop-cadenced verses and a fist-pumping singalong chorus. "Bonfire" and "Summer Town" are breezy, bouncy anthems, while the slow burner "Monotov's Private Opera" combines delicate acoustic guitar with pitter-patter percussion and Jenkins' hushed vocals. It's ultimately encouraging to hear the singer declare, "Let's start a riot, me and you/'Cause a riot's overdue," on the album opener "Can You Take Me"-proof that the band hasn't lost its swagger. "Ursa Major" isn't Third Eye Blind's crowning jewel, but it's a welcome return to form after such a lengthy hiatus.ý --Evan Lucy...full text |
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