Dopamine

Dopamine is the fifth studio album by American rock band Third Eye Blind, released on June 16, 2015. It is the band's first studio album since 2009's Ursa Major. Third Eye Blind worked on Dopamine from 2010 to 2015. The album's first single, "Everything Is Easy", was released on May 8, 2015, along with a cover version of the Beyoncé song "Mine". The album debuted at No. 13 on the Billboard 200, selling over 21,000 copies in its first week. Background The band spoke of a fifth album as early as 2009, upon releasing their fourth studio album, Ursa Major. Material had been written and recorded sporadically over the course of six years since their third album, Out of the Vein, resulting in such a wealth of material that the band considered releasing it as a double album, Ursa Major being the main album, and Ursa Minor being a fifth album, containing leftover tracks. Plans went from releasing them as a double album, to releasing them as two separate but companion type fourth and fifth albums, to not releasing Minor at all, as by 2012, frontman Stephan Jenkins announced that the entire idea had been scrapped in favor of writing new material. The change in plans had been a result of changes in band members; much of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor had been written with guitarist Tony Fredianelli, who after the release of Ursa Major, sued the band for missing song-writing credits and publishing royalties for Ursa Major and the Red Star EP. Fredianelli had many of the claims dismissed, but ultimately still won over $400,000 from the band for lost wages in touring in support of Ursa Major. He was replaced by Irish guitarist Kryz Reid. The band also recruited new bassist Alex LeCavalier—the position had previously been filled by various session and touring members—and Alex Kopp, a dedicated keyboardist for the first time in the band's history. Writing and recording The band started writing and recording new material for the fifth album as early as 2010, initially aiming for an early 2011 release date. The release date eventually slipped into 2012, and then later, by late 2012, Jenkins conceded that he was again suffering from writer's block and was struggling to finish lyrics for songs. He also announced at that time that it would be the band's last album. The only work released from the sessions was the track "If There Ever Was A Time", a track released for free in 2011 in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement happening at the time.