Ursa Major (2009)

Rolling Stone (p.96)
- 3 stars out of 5 -- "URSA MAJOR is a slick but heartfelt disc that packs pleasure even if you're not Nineties nostalgic."

AllMusicGuide.com 7 of 10
When Third Eye Blind released Out of the Vein in 2003, they felt like post-grunge relics that refused to acknowledge their time had passed. Six years later, with Ursa Major in tow, they've waited out the fallow time, surfacing just when late-'90s alt rock nostalgia is beginning to bubble. Tellingly, TEB shuck much of the heavy, oppressive sobriety of Out of the Vein, replacing it with a touch of the fizzy, singsong hooks that made their debut a smash success. Without guitarist Kevin Cadogan, these hooks aren't as finely honed, but they're still present, still digging in right underneath the surface, letting Stephan Jenkins get away with such nonsense as "Why can't you be like my Water Pik shower massager/A sweet reliable machine/To tell you the truth I don't feel less alone/A water massager is the purest love I've ever known." Jenkins digs deeper than the attributes of a massage, retaining no small element of the hard-edged social consciousness of Out of the Vein, signaling when it's time for things to get serious by toning down the hooks, turning down the volume, and letting the seriousness of the situation speak for itself. This makes the back half of Ursa Major kind of a self-important drag, almost erasing memories of the first side when Third Eye Blind were once again acting like the band they used to be, so the solution is simple: treat Ursa Major as an EP, forgetting the second half. - Stephen Thomas Erlewine
 
Los Angeles Times 8 of 10
This San Francisco alt-rock outfit hasn't released a new studio album since 2003, back when it was still riding on the fumes of "Semi-Charmed Life," its late-'90s radio smash. But just as Weezer's cult classic Pinkerton eventually came to influence a generation of young emo bands, Third Eye Blind's music has over the intervening years become an unexpected touchstone for groups like Panic! at the Disco and Boys Like Girls -- acts that didn't even exist the last time Third Eye Blind was an aboveground concern...Perhaps it's that after-the-fact renown that's kept frontman Stephan Jenkins in fighting form, for rather than seeming like an aging has-been on Ursa Major, Jenkins instead comes on like he never left the scene. In fact, with its pulsating rhythms and crisp guitar fuzz, the new record actually does a better job of extending the band's early work than did its lukewarm previous effort, Out of the Vein...The Third Eye Blind sound is still appealingly idiosyncratic: Though he's a fine melodist, Jenkins often sings with the percussive attack of a rapper, as in "Don't Believe a Word," where he takes part (invited or not) in the ongoing conversation regarding hip-hop's sociocultural obligation: "Rap stars brag about shooting each other / Whatever happened to, 'Brother, brother'?" he sings, invoking Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On."...And though founding guitarist Kevin Cadogan left the group following 1999's Blue, Jenkins here expertly re-creates the hard-edged jangle that always distinguished Third Eye Blind from its blander radio-rock peers, such as Train and Matchbox Twenty...Will Ursa Major catch on commercially in the new digital age? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, expect its charms to echo for a while. - Mikael Wood
 

Since 1997, San Francisco's Third Eye Blind have recorded three best-selling albums and assembled one career retrospective. Led by Stephan Jenkins, 3EB won wide success during a tumultuous group of years when the major-label recording industry was finally losing its grip on an enterprise that for decades it had dominated with steely efficiency. Nothing could have made 3EB happier! 3EB, however, have experienced no comparable loss. Instead, they have gained artistic clarification -- and, surprisingly, a fan base larger than ever.

Participation in the older, untouchable realm of nervous star-making and could color a band's identity. In the case of 3EB, it often blurred the perception of their brilliant musical creations. In recent years, those creations have recast the band among a current generation of fans.