Electrohop/pop/rock duo 3OH!3 have certainly proven their ability to write catchy and memorable tunes with their, despite popular belief, musical/lyrical talent (!?), but the problem here is the same problem they had with their previous, 2008 album Want and might always have. Starting off as joke rappers, three albums in, they've become drastically more serious with their music but can never seem to decide completely whether to take themselves seriously or not, and this lack of commitment significantly brings the album down. As a whole, Streets of Gold really has no overall theme (The duo’s attack on superficiality in “Love 2012” invalidates pretty much the rest of the album, for example). But as a collection of songs, it isn't so bad.
It's obvious there are varying amounts of effort put forth throughout the album. Some songs are well executed both musically and lyrically, like how "Love 2012" succeeds at thought-provoking, or at least cool, with an apocalyptic theme and subsequent, epic build up, and “I’m Not the One” is wonderfully straightforward, along with its lyrics (“Drink the poison lightly/’Cause there are bigger and darker things than you”), and showcase 3OH!3’s potential. But many songs just feel like missed opportunities, most likely from the duo's recurring laziness; their position on censorship in “Touchin’ on My” is too subtle in opposing its lyrical emptiness, the rebellious anthem "We Are Young" is mostly just generic, not to mention the almost witty "I Can Do Anything" and the not-sarcastic-enough-to-call-sarcastic "House Party". And some, like "I Know How to Say" and its '60s rock-and-roll vibe (accompanied by lyrics like "I know how to say 'love' in many different ways"), were simply bad ideas from the start.
The lyrics of Streets of Gold are pretty inconsistent. They seem to get better the more serious the song is, and so they can range from "skip the tell and let's just show" and "gonna have a house party in my house" to "flash, flash television, give me a new religion" and "the city lights will burn you down". But there are definitely more of the former, let alone complete lyrical disasters like "Déj* Vu" and "I Know How to Say".
Musically, the album is also very uneven. There are attempts at musical diversity, with some success and some pointlessness; the aforementioned, end of the world sounds in “Love 2012”, the strings used at the end of “I Can Do Anything”, and the piano in “I’m Not the One” are fitting, but the air horn in “House Party”, the organ and cheesy “whoas” in the title track, the entirety of instrumental “Beaumont”, the background synths in several different songs, and, in general, the album’s leaning towards more guitar-sounding synths (one track is even non-electronic) seem to serve no purpose whatsoever. In several songs, the stripped-down approach is used, like in the boringly direct "See You Go", with thumping bass and a half-rapped verse contrasting its way too harmonized/melodic chorus, and in the lustful "My First Kiss", with simple handclaps and some more half-rap, but it doesn't respect the songs' topics well and just comes off as lazy. That being said, it makes more sense when used in the third verse of the borderline decent ballad "R.I.P." and in the laid back (although otherwise lyrically disappointing) "Double Vision".
And so for every well thought out "Love 2012" and passable "R.I.P.", there's a half-assed "My First Kiss" and another quarter-assed "House Party", further joined an occasional swing and a miss. Streets of Gold would be much better if 3OH!3 could make up their minds and stop trying to please everyone (from fans and casual fans to critics). But, if they're going to try, they could at least try harder.
