08.12.2009

THIRD EYE BLIND'S DON'T BELIEVE A WORD

by Karlo Jose R. Pineda

There it is in the headlines, big, bold and, um, ambitious? Third Eye Blind goes political, or so do the press releases say. Yes, those guys who had been with my peer group during our tender days when we nursed our pretty little heartbreaks to the tune of How’s It Going To Be and had urged us to stage dive with much bravado after receiving our elementary diploma shouting, “Can I graduate,” have just gone to ply a different theme for their musical explorations.

Pretty much apparent if we’d simply judge it from the titles of the tracks in the band’s upcoming fourth studio album dubbed Ursa Major: Bonfire, Sharp Knife, About To Break, etc. And, hell, frontman Stephan Jenkins even admitted that this one’s going to be “more political” than the previous efforts of 3eb.

Ah yes, it’s first single, Don’t Believe A Word. Don a shirt with these words boldly printed on it when you pay the Senate a visit, and I bet people there would be so intrigued they wouldn’t be able to shut the schmuck up, instead go on and ask who you’d vote for in the 2010 election (if there’d be one) even if you’re just there to accompany someone conduct an interview for a school project. Uh-huh, that political.

And that blunt and tasteless, too, when we speak of the song’s lyrics. “We love thugs when they attack/We love crime all black on black,” “Give me back my photos, will you?/You fucking whore I’ll kill you”?! I mean, what’s up with that, Stephan? What happened to the wordsmith who made lines like “Where do we begin to get clean again/Can we get clean again” and “Turn my bones to sand/Just to see you/I’ll give you anything” bleed like they were meant to, or the casual bard who audaciously announced that “Icarus is not a tee shirt or a swan song” and told the world about “icing over a secret pain”?

Clearly, Jenkins coming out of “a lyrical slump,” which accounts for Ursa Major being the first album from the band in over six years, can be traced just in this one song.

And aren’t we talking about a political song here? Pardon, but the instant comparisons with Incubus’ monster hit Megalomaniac or any other Rage Against the Machine songs are inevitable, in which Don’t Believe A Word measures up like a desperate politician snaring a victory based on cuteness. When you want a song to rouse people to march on the streets with placards containing all those angry and topple-worthy words, you don’t encapsulate it in a melody reminiscent of Never Let You Go. It just ain’t right.

And the coarse screaming part in the two minute-and-a-half mark of the song doesn’t pass as a gimmick, even if it’s meant to highlight the lyric “Pretty soon we’ll wake up screamin’.” It just reminds me of listening to Taking Back Sunday, a band I would never pick over the Third Eye Blind I’ve known.

Going political may be a gutsy move for the band. Or perhaps it was because of the pressure felt by most artists, which is to veer away from the usual stuff they do. But if the material 3eb would be giving us is as good as, say, Motorcycle Drive By or, yes, that seminal song that made us go too-too-too-too-toorootoo, won’t we all admit that still there’s a spot in our hearts for teenage angst and wild spirit? Hey! I’d still listen to How’s It Going To Be anytime I’m heartbroken.

Well, Don’t Believe A Word is just a portion of the package. I hope Ursa Major comes out a big bad bear eager to devour its listeners for the sake of quintessential alternative rock.

NOTE: Ursa Major was originally set to be released in June 2009, but was pushed to August of the same year. The album will be closely followed by 3eb’s fifth album, Ursa Minor. According to Jenkins, Ursa Minor will consist of songs that didn’t make the cut for Ursa Major.

TAGS: third eye blind don't believe a word

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• 2009
  • JULY

    • SONG TITLE	ARTIST	RATING
      OUR LADY PEACE'S ALL YOU DID WAS SAVE MY LIFE		8