Album review: 3OH!3 Omens - Vox Magazine

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At the one-minute mark of Omens introductory prelude, a powerful mix of synths and electronic dance beats reverberate through the speakers and quicken the pulse in your veins. The build up is quiet; the soft chanting of 3-3-3-oh-oh-oh-3-3-3 echoes. The first layer of sound emulates Timbaland?s production of ?Ayo Technology,? and after 60 seconds, a smile will creep over the faces of 3OH!3 fans who cringed at their sell-out album Streets of Gold and?their collaboration with Ke$ha on the painfully obnoxious single ?My First Kiss.? One thought will cross their minds: 3OH!3 is back.

When the duo from Boulder, Colorado released their debut album Want in 2008, people had a hard time categorizing the music. Was it rap? Was it electronic pop? Was it annoying or really great running music?

Someone at a party in 2008 explained it best: ?You have to listen to this CD. It?s f??g awesome.?

Want?got better with every listen. The song that hooked me as I sipped a can of PBR and heard it for the first time was the slowest track, ?Still Around.? The pop ballad was an anomaly compared to the rest of the album and especially the biggest hits ? the fast-paced ?Don?t Trust Me? reached top 10 Billboard status ? and the mix of emo pop with a drum machine reminded me of The Postal Service. On top of that, the opening lyrics, ?Go ahead and burn it down/I?m drunk and so is everyone else in this devil town,? made it the perfect anthem for 18-year-old Americans filled with angst about their boring middle-class suburban lives as they embarked on what would be years of beer bongs and drunkenly calling exes. For those of you who are with me on the ?Still Around? obsession, you should listen to Omen?s ?Back to Life.?

Omens?has?been available to stream online for awhile, so let?s forget Streets of Gold ever happened. With Omens, 3OH!3 has?undoubtedly matured. They?ve also embraced the current EDM craze. In that sense, Omens is less hardcore than Want?not as much screaming (see: Want Chokechain) and a lot more Skrillex. In fact, you might wonder if Sonny John Moore helped produce Omen?s final track ?Do or Die.?

I predict ?Live for the Weekend,? which channels the vibe of Wiz Khalifa?s ?No Sleep,? is the most likely to become a radio hit. The lyrics aren?t incredibly original, ?Oh yeah, party in the city/Drinkin? if you?re with me then we?ll be passed out on the floor,? but the words fall into a natural rhythm that makes the chorus infectiously catchy.

Overall, the album has a cohesive flow; it?s one that you?d take on a road trip and listen to the whole thing straight through. The song ?Eyes Closed,? my personal favorite, falls back on the band?s classic transitions between soft falsettos and raspy screams, as we heard in Want?s ?I?m Not Your Boyfriend.?

But my advice about this album really comes down to one thing: if your neighbors aren?t telling you to turn it down this weekend, shame on you.

Source: http://www.voxmagazine.com/blog/2013/06/album-review-3oh3-omens/

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