Streets of Gold

Background

3OH!3 released a video for the song "House Party" on April 8 as a teaser for Streets of Gold. The group hired Andrew W.K. to do a rock remix of "House Party", which was released virally on Friday April 16, 2010. 3OH!3 had met Andrew W.K. at a house party in Memphis, Tennessee. First single, "My First Kiss" was released on their website at 3:03 PM EST May 3. and digitally at midnight on May 4. On May 18, 2010, the song "Touchin' on My" was released exclusively on iTunes Store. 3OH!3 planned to release a new song every other Tuesday up to the release of the album. "Déjà Vu" was released on June 1, and "Double Vision" was released on June 15. On June 8, the song "I Can Do Anything" was released to members only on the 3OH!3 website. The song "I Know How To Say" was used in a trailer for the animated Disney film Mars Needs Moms. An excerpt from the instrumental version of the song can be heard on the official Mars Needs Moms website.

Critical reception

The album received mixed reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 48, based on 11 reviews, which indicates "generally mixed or average reviews". Allmusic writer David Jeffries noted "over-the-top performances" and stated "3oh!3 are nothing if not loud and shameless, so if you expect end-to-end excellence from their albums, you’ve got a lot to learn about cheap thrills". Entertainment Weekly's Leah Greenblatt gave the album a C+ rating and wrote that "Streets of Gold's beats still sound garage-sale-Casio cheap, but the album yields several doofy, affable sing-alongs". Jon Caramanica of The New York Times complimented its incorporation of hip hop, rock, and electro-pop styles and described it as "an oppressive and convincing wall of sounds". Alternative Press gave the album 4 out of 5 stars and wrote that it "sweeps across a broad range of stylistic tones, maintaining levity while dabbling in comparably serious musical pursuits". The Washington Post's Sean Fennessey called 3OH!3 "cheeky stylists with quips that frequently devolve into misogyny" and noted "little depth", but concluded "Still, this is a group that excels when no one is listening to what they're saying, only to how they sound, which is always committed and fearlessly grand".

In contrast, BBC Online's Fraser McAlpine panned the album's lyrics and called it "dumb for sure, but no fun whatsoever". Ben Weisz of MusicOMH gave it 2 out of 5 stars and stated "the lyrics are generally unimaginative, sacrificing any shred of credibility to chase the cheap rhyme". Stacey Anderson of Spin criticized the songs' "witticisms" and noted "brutish synths and hammy bleats". Giving it 1 out of 5 stars, Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone called it "grim stuff – a soundtrack for beer-pong tournaments" and panned its formula of "dopey electro rock bolstering 'raps' about drinking... and getting girls to 'touch on' their privates". NME's Mark Beaumont gave the album a 0/10 rating and called 3OH!3 "electro-hip-pop white bread American scum", stating "If 'Streets Of Gold'’s lyrics are unlikely to bother the Nobel committee, musically 3OH!3 are a boyband pendulum: the threat of the latter tamed and glossed by the cash-hungry urge to be the former".

Commercial performance

Streets of Gold debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200 with 41,000 copies sold in its first week. The album has sold more than 100,000 copies in US.

Track listing

All songs produced by Matt Squire and 3OH!3, additional producers noted.

Personnel

Credits for Streets of Gold adapted from Allmusic.