3 Doors Down - Away From The Sun

This is frat daddy rock. Let’s not kid ourselves people. We all come into these things with preconceptions. Not that we are always one for stereotypes, but certain bands do strike up images of beer guzzling frat boys who wouldn’t know truly good music if it paddled and hazed them into submission. Bands like, well… 3 Doors Down. There I said it. 3 Doors Down hit it big with the single “Kryptonite” and haven’t looked back. After a few singles it became pretty obvious that they were another band whose focus was monster riff, drunk sing-a-long, radio friendly, mass appeal rock, and so far they haven’t really swayed too far from the formula. All that being said, I popped in their latest offering, Away From The Sun and tried my best to listen with a blank slate. The album opens with the radio hit “When I’m Gone”, so it is hard to keep the slate clean trying to act like you are hearing a song for the first time, when you have heard it fifty million times on every radio station in the world. But then something weird happened. The title track came on and something came over me. The Greek alphabet maybe? Or maybe something else. Regardless, I found myself enjoying it. The album went on with a series of catchy, yet easily forgettable tracks radio A&R guys drool over. I put the album away and went on listening to my usual rotation. But like a college student attracted to cheap beer specials, I kept coming back. You know it is cheap, you know it isn’t the best in the world, but for some reason you keep buying it. I have no excuse, and I have no explanation, but one little song kept drawing me back. “Away From The Sun” wouldn’t get out of my head and I have been listening to it ever since. A downright well written and catchy rock anthem if ever there was one. I would listen to it five times in a row at points. I even found myself in a fast food drive through screaming the chorus into a friend’s voicemail. I, of course, was drunk and in line and eagerly awaiting greasy tacos (2 for $0.99. God bless you, Jack!). Then a funny thing happened. The more I put the disc in to hear that one song the more I would just let it play and listen and enjoy. Yes, it is nothing original. Yes, it is nothing great or artistic. It is radio rock and nothing more. But Lord help me it ain’t all that bad. [www.3doorsdown.com]