LogFAQs > #979167888

Compared to the cage match roars of Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley, and Chris Cornell, Wilson sang as if he was serenading a baby bird he was nursing back to health with an eye dropper.

I kind of loved this line.

Ahead of acts like Third Eye Blind and Matchbox 20, Gin Blossoms had recognized a market for deceptively sordid minivan music.

Fuck...those are pretty decent comparisons that never came into my mind. Both of those though have songs I remember fondly because they became big when I was a bit more aware of music.

Its as if the bitter details cut too harshly against their docile image to become lore. If listeners rarely consider them as a tragic band, its because its much more gratifying to think of them how theyre most widely knownas just the Gin Blossoms, a group unburdened by expectations of coolness or relevance, whose meek demeanor disguises some undeniable riffs, and whose signature earworms, despite decades of exposure, somehow never seem to burn out. Some bands are defined by their tragedies. Others simply carry on in spite of them.

I certainly didn't know about that backstory. Doesn't really change my opinions on the album at all. The summation seems pretty spot on.