Monday, November 28, 2011

Serious Contenders: Third Eye Blind, "Semi Charmed Life"



As you might have noticed, I'm in the business of lifting the music of the 90's up amongst the rest of music history, and not just for Nirvana and Radiohead. Half the future installments of "Serious Contenders" are from the 90's, simply because it's been long enough that my relatively impartial memory -- around but unaware during the time -- feels suited to the task of sussing out what should survive, what should be remembered and enshrined.

You never know what's going to sum up a time or place. I thought, when I was a kid, it was just some dumb pop song, but it's actually pretty bang-on for that 90's feeling of sunshine on the outside, turmoil on the inside. It's this feeling of seeming happy but knowing inside something's wrong. So Third Eye Blind married the sunniest goddamn hook you could think of (Doot-doot-doot, doot-do-doot-doot) to wry, lamenting lyrics about addiction and emotional instability, delivered at a pace that indicates how in-touch with hip hop "alt-rock" was or felt at the time (one of many examples, most of which will probably end up here before long.) It even has that eye-of-the-storm middle eight, "I believe in the sand beneath my toes," etc, that seem to indicate the late 90's were just a big ole beach party, but one everyone was ready to leave.

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