Third Eye Blind - Thanks for Everything EP

Third Eye Blind
Thanks for Everything EP
2018
Spotify

I don't often review cover albums, especially those that are only seven tracks, but for some reason this one stood out as something to discuss. This new release from Third Eye Blind is a group of covers from as Stephen Jenkins described them " mostly little-known" from the likes of Chastity Belt, Santigold and Bon Iver. The covers are mostly reverential save for the modern rock TEB spin that the band put on some of the tunes. It's not that Third Eye Blind have ruined these tracks by covering them, that is not the case at all, it's just that the whole thing feels a bit condescending. These artists are working right now, and they likely would never do much with Third Eye Blind so for the band to just release a record of covers of these artists, is odd. Third Eye Blind just short of shove the songs through their lens and loose some of the subtleties that make these tracks good in the first place. Jenkins is always at the center, as He has always been with their music which these other bands He is covering just don't do. "This Isn't Our Parade" originally recorded by Happy Diving here becomes a basic rock song with Jenkins rising about the music and the occasional guitar solo to be the big star. It feels silly, especially with the lyrical content of these songs, you can just imagine Third Eye Blind feeling like they have suddenly become the gatekeepers of what a good song sounds like or how it should be done.

A covers album is one of the best ways to tell if a band is fading away, especially when they are covers of other contemporaries. It's a way of saying we can't write any new music but would love to stay relevant with the music someone else wrote. Maybe the biggest offender here is the Bon Iver cover "Blood Bank". Hearing Stephen Jenkins try to sing this earnest and raw song feels so strange and never really clicks into the song. Maybe if you never knew of the Bon Iver song this might make a bit more sense, but here it really does not. The whole record just feels like a big ol clunky mess of a band trying to tell other bands they like them in the most condescending way possible. If there was one track that took the original to new heights or really explored that would be one thing, but as it is this record is happy to play pretty down the middle Third Eye Blind style covers. This album never really moves the needle, but perhaps it was never supposed to as the band recorded it on a few stops during their most recent tour. If it was intended to just be a throwaway, well then mission accomplished, but I bet it was a lot more than that.

2.0 out of 10