(apart from Ice Cap which is legit an actual song as it turns out; Hard Times by The Jetzons.)

(( I mean not to say that's not a fuckin' sweet track in its own right it's just... not funky like the rest of the OST. XD It's more high energy and stuff! ))

Actually on that note... the Sonic & Knuckles portion of Sonic 3 is... very different in style
All the Sonic 3 levels and Sonic 3 specific musics are funky as hell, Ice Cap excluded.

In fact, Ice Cap's two tunes sound honestly more like they belong in the Sonic & Knuckles' portion. They're all higher energy tracks... ASIDE from Mushroom Hill Zone which is still funktacular.

*Sideeyes Sandopolis Zone,... narrows eyes* you sit the fuck down.

( I don't like Sandopolis Zone can you tell lol. I fuckjin' hate the Instant Death Failure State speed-puzzling sections, and I hate the darkness mechanic, and I hate the fucking unkillable ghosts and just... god

fuck that entire pair of stages oh my god.

They shoulda taken notes from Sonic 2's Dust Hill Zone and just... not.

...oh yeah the 2p vs mode maps have a rather mixed bag of tracks too. like the first two are high energy af, Chrome Gadget tho is veering back into The Funky Zone, with a really nice poppy sorta sound. a funky , poppy sound... a funkopop s-wait no.

Desert Palace, which is just a Sandopolis themed race but with a better song, is pretty nice. Pretty poppy again.

Then there's Endless Mine, which... goddang we gone way past funk into goddamn Samba territory or something, i like it. And then the results go full funk again.

There's like, a series of musical directions here and it's kinda fascinating to actually sit and analyse it.

Sonic 3's final boss music is infinitely superior tho ngl. Big Arms is a fuckin great boss track.