Perhaps Third Eye Blind should have titled their third album
"Same Vein," since the record offers more of what put
the San Francisco band on the map--brainy stream-of-conscious
lyrics, big choruses, chunky fretwork, and a liberal dose of sexual
innuendo. Frontman Stephan Jenkins engages in some artistic bloodletting
here, opening a vein and allowing all the anguish he's experienced
over the last few years to spill into these songs. Twelve of the
14 compositions find Jenkins recounting his messy breakup with
South African actress Charlize Theron. He veers from attempting
to lure her back with facile wordplay and exhaustive sexual promises
to being haunted by her cover-girl face every time he passes a
newsstand. He even conjures her face before he hits the pavement
on "My Hit and Run," which chronicles a motorcycle accident.
To his credit, Jenkins is much more interesting a songwriter when
he's wounded, offering candor that's not evident on TEB's first
two discs.