"Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind" So Good It's Unfair

 

    Like most people who probably remember this band, I found out about them listening to Semi-Charmed Life. Except it was a cover by my favourite high school band Dance Gavin Dance, and I quickly realized the original sounded significantly better. Afterwards, my knowledge of the band stayed mostly dormant for a decent chunk of my teenage years, I never really felt the desire to listen to the rest of the album, but then one day I put it on for a spin. Honestly, it was fine, but to young me, it became much too slow and much too long after Graduate, so I simply stopped remembering the album past track five.

    Eventually though, once I reached university, and I began to broaden my music horizons slowly but surely, I'd find myself coming back to this album every summer, remembering the amazing start, the fantastic songs, and then one day it just clicked. It's like I was taking a nice walk on a sunny afternoon and the rest of this album unlocked for me. Seriously, it's like all I needed was patience to enjoy what I view as a summer classic for me now. I just don't understand how I never enjoyed songs like Motorcycle Drive By until a couple years ago. So, when my friends wanted me to recommend one of my favourite albums of all time, in July no less, it wasn't too hard of a decision to do. Plus, it's not like the band has many other good records anyways. So without further ado, my track-by-track review.

Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind

Losing a Whole Year - 95/100 Expect some egregiously high scores, but honestly I don't care, I love this album and do love this intro track. It's just really catchy there's no other way to put it. Certainly not my favourite track off of this album but still ridiculously good every time I listen to it. 

Narcolepsy - 100/100 Yes this song did make me go search up what narcolepsy is but this song is just that good. I love the slow buildup in the first half until the band explodes into this fiery second half that I just cannot resist every time I hear it. Every time this song comes on I listen to it, it's an easy 100 for me without a doubt. I mean even if I've never suffered from narcolepsy I do love singing the lyrics to this song, especially the last screaming part before the song goes into a breakdown.

Semi-Charmed Life - 100/100 I know some people don't like this song because the all of the doo-doo's annoy them but to be honest teenage me never cared and I still don't. I mean it is about crystal meth but it is just fun to sing the lyrics even and honestly when I think about 90's rock I think about this album, this song, and also Weezer but that's a whole other thing.

Jumper - 90/100 Is it rude for me to say the song about suicide is probably my least favourite of the top 5 songs in this album which are all amazing? I mean it's still a 90 to me but there are rare moments in my life I don't feel like listening to this album, which is honestly probably understandable considering its on the slower and sadder end.

Graduate - 100/100 Yes this is one of my favourite shouty songs ever. I mean I don't know what you expected I am a generally angsty person who just finished like 18 years of schooling don't tell me you never wanted to yell at the top of your lungs "CAN I GRADUTE?" to a song as catchy as this one. Apparently, they replaced the version of this song from the album with a different one, so the 2006 remastered version was the one originally on the CD for this album? I can't really tell to be honest it's just the intro that feels different.

How's It Going to Be - 86/100 I never got quite that far to liking this song when I was younger but now that I'm older I must admit it's a really nice, slow, alt-rock track.

Thanks a Lot - 87/100 Compared to how many plays this song has compared to How's It Going to Be, I must admit I'm a little surprised, because I think this song is better. I mean sure it's obviously slightly louder, faster and longer, but surely that doesn't account for a 180 million listen count difference.

Burning Man - 82/100 Sadly, I must admit the album takes a bit of a small dip at this point. It's nothing to be ashamed of in my opinion, it's still a good song, but certainly it doesn't reach the same high's as the first half of the album. 

Good for You - 75/100 Probably kind of easily the weakest song on the album in my opinion. I just rarely find myself wanting to listen to it. Sure it can be pretty solid but I don't think it does enough for a song that reaches nearly 4 minutes.

London - 80/100 While I do sometimes find myself wanting to listen to London, I must admit that it's also personally one of the weaker tracks off of this album for me. Like it's fine but it doesn't hit the same compared to songs in the beginning in terms of energy, ferocity or just lyrics.

I Want You - 80/100 Now, here in the album we reach the good slow, song part of the album. Pretty much any of the intensity from the first half is completely gone, and it's mostly mellowed out, but at least Third Eye Blind is finally showing that they know how to write a slow song other than Jumper.

The Background - 90/100 It's with these last couple of songs that Third Eye Blind really redeems themselves with the soft dip in quality in the second half. This would probably be my favourite slow song off of this album if it wasn't for the next track. 

Motorcycle Drive By - 95/100 This song to me reminds me of like a longer, slightly weaker Narcolepsy. It also does the same thing where it speeds up a decent amount halfway. But it really doesn't matter to me because it works again. How can you not love it when he yells "I've never been so alive"?

God of Wine - 75/100 This song is pretty alright, a fine way to end the album but honestly I think the two song before it are much stronger. 

Final Score: 100/100

    Do I actually know if I think this album is 100? I suppose that depends on your philosophy on how willing you are to give 100's. I think at one point in time I would have said there's no such thing as a perfect album (except for maybe WORRY. by Jeff Rosenstock), therefore I shouldn't give out 100's. I think my stance on that has changed over the years though. In general, I think it's simply more interesting to give out higher scores, partially because I think I used to fret too much over the numbers, but some albums just deserve that sort of love. And that's this album for me, and I don't think I'll think about it too much giving this album a 100. Right now I'd say its pretty firmly in my top 10 albums of all time. I mean of course there's a time factor too. The more I come back to an album, the more I learn to enjoy it in different ways, which deepens my appreciation for it, which I guess is what happened here.