Where “Losing a Whole Year” was once a shout-along pump-up jam, I now hear the wistful sadness in Jenkins’ voice when he shouts “I remember you and me used to spend/The whole goddamn day in bed” at the very beginning of the song. Throughout the first half, I still hear my childhood-even if I’ve long since discovered the extra weight hiding in those songs. Listening to Third Eye Blind today is a surreal experience for me. That discovery encouraged me to revisit the record (and Third Eye Blind’s discography as a whole), and I quickly fell in love with the tracks that surrounded “Motorcycle”: the dreamy “I Want You” the raucously catchy “London” the agonizing “The Background” and the late-night beauty that was “God of Wine.” I couldn’t believe I’d spent so long pretending this band was nothing more than their hits when they had a deep cut this good sitting in the penultimate slot of their debut album. On the recommendation of a Counting Crows forum user, I actively listened to “Motorcycle Drive By” for probably the first time ever. ![]() Seven years after the album’s release, I finally delved into the treasures hiding near the back of Third Eye Blind. I’m sure I heard the back half of the record a few times, when my brother was playing it on his boom box or when it was spinning in the car CD player, but I never got there of my own accord. By the time “Thanks a Lot” came on, I’d gotten what I wanted out of my Third Eye Blind spins. An interesting thing, though, was that I never went past track six. The singles-“Semi-Charmed Life,” “Graduate,” “How’s It Going to Be,” “Losing a Whole Year,” and “Jumper” (as well as the tempo-hopping non-single “Narcolepsy”)-were gigantic, melodic songs that my six-year-old brain latched onto eagerly. I didn’t have my own CD player at the time, but I would borrow my brother’s portable player just so I could jam this album. There might not be a single song that makes me think more of summertime than that one.Īs a kid, I loved Third Eye Blind because they sounded like summer. At 26 years old, I still think it’s the catchiest song I’ve ever heard. At six years old, I thought it was the catchiest song I’d ever heard. ![]() In the summer of 1997, “Semi-Charmed Life” rode the infectiousness of its “doo doo doo” hook to the number one slot on Billboard’s Mainstream Top 40 chart. Frankly, early on, it was easy to hear Third Eye Blind’s music as little more than catchy radio rock. Third Eye Blind is a much more complex record than I thought it was when I first heard it, and I’d reckon that something similar holds true for most people. And, as is the trademark of frontman Stephan Jenkins, even some of the songs that sound happy are actually crushing. The other half are songs that ache with such profound loneliness that listening to them with a group of people almost seems sacrilegious. Half the songs wouldn’t sound out of place on a summertime party playlist. The latter half is more jagged and mid-tempo, with songs that sound noticeably darker and more subdued. The first half of the record is stacked with infectiously catchy pop-rock songs-most of which became hit singles. Third Eye Blind’s self-titled is simultaneously one of the most joyful albums I’ve ever heard and one of the most heartbreaking.
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