Soul Rotation

Dead Milkmen | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 14, 1992)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Hollywood Records
• ASIN: B000008EWU
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #148,175 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. At the Moment

2. The Secret of Life

3. Big Scary Place

4. Belafonte's Inferno

5. The Conspiracy Song

6. How It's Gonna Be

7. All Around the World

8. Silly Dreams

9. Wonderfully Colored Plastic War Toys

10. God's Kid Brother

11. If I Had a Gun

12. Here Comes Mr. X

13. Shaft in Greenland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars After all these years ... my favorite DM album, April 19, 2007

By 

Hildegard Friday "information junkie" (Savannah, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soul Rotation (Audio CD)

This came out when I was 14 years old, and I bought it new on cassette. I didn't like it much at the time, being a huge fan of stuff like "Watching Scotty Die," "Going to Graceland" and "If You Love Somebody (Set Them on Fire)." A few years later, 1996 or 1997 or so, after I read a few Robert Anton Wilson books, my then-boyfriend and I listened to this album in an, um, altered state, and it suddenly made a lot more sense, and I totally fell in love with it. It's a very thoughtful, thought-provoking, and in some cases, beautiful album, which treads into much "heavier" (i.e. "serious") territory than any other DM album, though it's still very smart and funny. I get the impression that Joe Jack Talcum had been delving deeply into mysticism/mythology/science fiction (and perhaps some LSD) prior to this album, as themes of God/Christ/aliens/how we got here/what's the meaning of it all pop up time and time again ("Belafonte's Inferno," about a Christ/alien/crucified messiah, "The Secret of Life," "God's Kid Brother"). The images conjured up in the lyrics are sometimes breathtaking as well ("We raced across the galaxy/away from all our ugliness/I felt beautiful and free/out where the devil can't exist/I felt a burst of energy/Hot white light poured from your eyes/We sped into infinity/I felt beautiful and free").

The reason this is my favorite DM album is b/c it's intricate, and there's more to it than the jokes on the surface -- It holds up wonderfully to repeated listens. It's hard to listen to a song like "I'm so bored I'm drinking bleach" (from Beelzebubba) over and over, when you're a little older yourself.

Listening to it today is also bittersweet, as I can't keep thinking of the terrible tragedy of bassist Dave Blood's 2003 suicide. I wish so badly he had just held on and waited for 80s punk nostalgia to hit, these boys could have definitely reunited and played to packed houses. I saw them in 1992, when they toured behind this album, and thought they put on a tremendous show. Maybe it's not too late? The Who kept going without Keith Moon, and later John Entwistle ...

I wonder if there are any plans for this album to be reissued? It's not even on iTunes, and they have almost all of the other DM albums.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New Fangled Milkmen, July 1, 2005

By 

Andrew Hoffman "Antibland" (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Soul Rotation (Audio CD)

I know what you late 20-somethings are saying--and it's totally understandable: "This isn't the same band I loved in the 80's." It's true, these songs are more carefully constructed, stripped clean of their cracking, static coats, and filled with certain lyrics that actually border on (gulp) seriousness. It's called maturity, folks. After so many years of making fun-loving, dog-eared albums, the DM wanted to take a stab at something larger. And truthfully, they earned the chance to do this. It's not like they sold out after one album and began pumping out boring, anti-everything music from some plush little studio off-shore somewhere.

If you still doubt the greatness of this album, I have 5 words for you:

Wonderfully
Colored
Plastic
War
Toys

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Example A of evidence that they weren't just a joke band, July 6, 2007

By 

godskidbrother "nanook339" (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soul Rotation (Audio CD)

This is hands down my favorite DM album. It shows their growth as songwriters; these are expertly crafted, melodic pop songs. But I recently heard someone call it "pathetic," presumably because they didn't rehash a "Bitchin' Camaro" or "Instant Club Hit." You know what I think is pathetic? A band whose members are by now well into their thirties writing 30 second novelty songs about taking retards to the zoo. Those songs worked because they were kids when they wrote them, and thus have a certain charm. But you have to grow, and fifteen years later this record still sounds fresh when others, at times, seem really dated.