YMMV / Third Eye Blind

• First Installment Wins: Their debut album remains the most commercially successful and acclaimed work.
  • Semi-Charmed Life was their first single, and is probably still the song they are most remembered for. Even barring that, it had the band's highest peaks on 8 of the 9 charts it was released to. Only in Canada, where it peaked at #2, was it outpaced by another single (Never Let You Go made it to #1).
• Refrain from Assuming:
  • "Semi-Charmed Life" is sometimes referred to as "I Want Something Else". Funny enough the lyrics say "Semi-Charmed kind of life" making things somewhat confusing.
  • "How's It Going To Be" (their second radio hit) is frequently referred to as "How's It Gonna Be". This is confusing too, because "gonna" actually appears in the song, not "going".
  • Their third big hit isn't called "I Would Understand", it's "Jumper".
  • "Never Let You Go" (their final hit) isn't called "Turn Around".
  • A far more obscure example (it didn't do so well on the charts), but "Deep Inside Of You" isn't called "I Never Felt Alone".
• Signature Song: "Semi-Charmed Life" is their most famous song, though one could argue that "Jumper" is just as iconic. "How's It Going To Be" and "Never Let You Go" are also pretty well-known.
• Tear Jerker: A lot of these, too. Some of the hardest-hitting include:
  • "Jumper" is easily the most famous and straightforward. Despite it's simplicity, it touches pretty much every emotional nerve when dealing with someone who's suicidal.
  "I wish you would step back from that ledge, my friend
  We could cut ties with all the lies you've been living in
  And if you do not want to see me again
  I would understand"
  • "Deep Inside of You" is about a failed relationship and the misery of realizing that person filled a void you never knew existed.
  I burn candles and stare at a ghost
  Deep inside of you
  And some great need in me... starts to bleed
  I've lost myself there's nothing left, it's all gone
  Deep inside of you
  • "Forget Myself", a combination of nostalgia for when they got their big break, and a confession of how rushed and confused life became once they rose to fame.
  • "The Background", from it's godlike intro/outro, to the shattering crunch of the final refrain, to it's heartbreakingly empty lyrics ("The plans I made still have you in them" is a particularly famous one). Probably the saddest part about it is that nobody can tell if it's about either the end of a relationship or the death of a lover.
  I do the things we did before
  I walk Haight Street to the store
  And they say, "Where's that crazy girl?
  You don't get drunk on red wine and fight no more"
  Now I don't see you anymore, since the hospital
  • "Wounded" tells about a victim of sexual assault and the damage to her mental health in the aftermath, and how her friends miss how wild and outgoing she used to be.
  The guy who put his hands on you
  Has got nothing to do with me
  And the bruises that you feel will heal
  And I hope you'll come around
  Cause we're missing you
  • The saddest, though, might go to "Motorcycle Drive-By." Unlike the others, this one actually sounds like he's singing it from the other side of the Despair Event Horizon.
  "That's when I knew that I could never have you
  I knew that before you did...
  I've never been so alone
  And I've never been so alive"