Ursa Major is the fourth studio album by American rock band Third Eye Blind. Released on August 18, 2009, on the group's own Mega Collider label, Ursa Major was the group's first studio album in over six years.Chad. "Third Eye Blind Delays Album Release". Alternative Addiction May 30, 2009.Graff, Gary. "Third Eye Blind Debuts Ursa Major At SXSW". billboard.com. March 22, 2009Drew, Ian. "Third Eye Blind's Stephan Jenkins Talks Ursa Major, Fierce Fans". Rolling Stone. August 11, 2009. The first single from the album was "Don't Believe a Word", which debuted on the radio June 5, 2009.

Background Frontman Stephan Jenkins had intended for the album to be released in 2007 but did not feel that it was complete, and writer's block slowed down the album's progress.Reuter, Annie. "Third Eye Blind Back from Hibernation". Marie Claire. Date Unknown.Vaziri, Aidin. "Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind". San Francisco Chronicle. August 16, 2009. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Jenkins also noted that the recording industry had "just collapsed" following the release of Out of the Vein.

The working title of the album was The Hideous Strength, after a similarly named C.S. Lewis book.Chad. "Third Eye Blind to Release New Album". Alternative Addiction. March 11, 2007Uhelszki, Jaan. "Third Eye Blind's Second Coming". San Francisco Chronicle. March 11, 2007. According to Jenkins, the album's name was subsequently changed to Ursa Major because "...We’ve been hibernating and now we’ve awakened and we are hungry for spring and we want to feed and we want to thrive." Another album, Ursa Minor (B-Sides compilation), was scheduled to follow Ursa Major, but the idea was later scrapped in favor of a new studio album.

Ursa Majors cover is derived from Uranographia, a 17th-century drawing by Johannes Hevelius. The view is mirrored following the tradition of celestial globes, showing the celestial sphere in a view from "outside", with the drawing mirrored to match the view through a telescope.

Reception

Upon its release, Ursa Major received positive reviews from music critics. The review aggregator website Metacritic assigns a "Metascore" to each album, which is based on the ratings and reviews of selected mainstream independent publications, and the release has a score of a 65 based on 7 selected critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Commercial performance Ursa Major debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200, selling 49,000 copies in its first week of release.Trust, Gary, Alex Vitoulis, et al. "Reba McEntire Nets Second No. 1 On Billboard 200". billboard.biz. August 28, 2009 The top 10 debut made Ursa Major the highest-charting album of the group's career, though its first week sales were less than that of its predecessor's first week sales of 63,000.Herrera, Monica and Keith Caulfield. "Reba McEntire Nets Second No. 1 on Billboard 200". Billboard.com. August 26, 2009.Hasty, Katey. "Marilyn Manson Posts 'Grotesque' At No. 1". billboard.com. May 21, 2003. The sales would prove to be short lived, as Ursa Major fell to #45 in its second week on the Billboard 200 with a 77% sales drop.Kreps, Daniel. "On the Charts: Colbie Caillat Breaks Through to Number One". Rolling Stone. September 2, 2009.

Track listing

Vinyl versionNotes"Monotov's Private Opera" is not listed on the back of the LP version and is the final song on the LP.

PersonnelThird Eye BlindStephan Jenkins – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, percussion, drums ("Why Can't You Be") Tony Fredianelli – lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboards Brad Hargreaves – drums, percussion, pianoAdditional PersonnelJon Evans – bass (except "Bonfire") Herve Salters – keyboards ("Why Can't You Be") Arion Salazar – bass ("Bonfire") Robyn Croomer – backing vocals Cynthia Taylor – backing vocals Minna Choi – backing vocals Ben Stokes – drum programming ("Water Landing"), synthesizer ("Can You Take Me")Production' Sean Beresford – engineering Tony Hoffer – engineering Chris Lord-Alge – engineering Vlado Meller – mastering

Charts Chart (2009) Peak position

References

External links