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Ursa Major – Third Eye Blind

With the charm and adulation post grunge music once enjoyed being long over, it was but natural for a sub-section of bands to fall out of fashion. San Fran based rockers Third Eye Blind have been one such band; though recent efforts by them have been fairly successful at changing the band’s image as such, one such being their latest album “Ursa Major”. The sound is decidedly fresh sounding, though a bit too fresh, ending up to make it sound much like a college band out with their debut. This starts becoming evident as you move through the opening sections of “Can You Take Me” and “Don’t Believe a Word”, both of which act as somewhat uninspired efforts failing to stir up any emotion. The unforgivable bit though is when you hear lyrics like “A water massager is the purest love I’ve ever known”, on “Why Can’t You Be”, and you start wondering about the composition of the chemical concoctions which influenced such work. Nonetheless, all is not as bad. The hummable bits come about in the form of “One in Ten” (a love struck teen stuck in a class of probability), “Bonfire” (which begins with an opening much reminiscent of Sting) and “About to Break”. Not much promised on the whole, but certain parts in the album do remind you of what the band has been in the past.