Let me preface this review by saying 3Oh!3 is not trying to be the next Coldplay. Their music isn’t for the reviewers or the critics. The Colorado duo’s target audience is the drunk-off-his-rocker college kid and the tipsy prospect on which he’s grinding. Would you listen to 3Oh!3 while puffing on a Cuban cigar and conversing about Ancient Philosophy? Probably not. 3Oh!3 is pump up music, compatible with driving down to the shore with a bunch of your friends, sipping some beers on your front porch or BSing about that girl who threw up in a grandfather clock she mistook for a toilet.
3Oh!3 is the McDonald’s of music. By that I don’t mean they are mass-produced, cheaply processed or hastily put together. When you eat a big Mac you usually turn to your friend, wide-eyed, saying, “This is so good!” And you mean it. But would you honestly say a Big Mac is an example of good food? No.
Similarly, 3Oh!3’s junior release Streets of Gold is not good, in the strictest sense of the word. Not good does not mean bad, though. The album’s lyrics can be grouped into three categories, but the lines that separate can be as blurry as a freshman’s vision after his fourth shot of 151. They boil down to (1) lyrics about getting with chicks (and subsequently disregarding them), (2) lyrics about flaunting success and (3) lyrics about partying hard. Needless to say, these are lingering motifs in the genre of hip hop and not unique to 3Oh!3. The production is similar in scope to their previous album Want, though slightly less inspired. A good example of their marriage of bumptious bass beats and Jersey Shore lyrics is the single “Touchin’ on My,” an amusing commentary on the club hookup scene.
The biggest disappointment about this album is not the subject matter. On their previous album, the mindless “I wanna screw this and drink that” wordplay seemed to be more of a parody. The lines were so outrageous because 3Oh!3 knew it was amusing to hear two white guys from Boulder rap about such themes. But on Streets of Gold, the group seems to have lost that self-referential jesting and are actually becoming the joke.
But don’t dismiss them totally. 3Oh!3 has a lot to offer if you’re willing to look. Beware, Streets of Gold is catchy as a venereal disease, and it only takes one listen to get infected. They’re fun guys, who don’t take themselves too seriously. You’d probably want to hang out with them at a mixer. Pop Streets of Gold in at a house party, listen to the group during a pre-game, and when it’s the end of the night and you’re tired and hungry, play some 3Oh!3 on the trip to McDonald’s.
