Search - Dead Milkmen :: Soul Rotation

After all these years ... my favorite DM album

Hildegard Friday | Savannah, GA USA | 04/20/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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."

New Fangled Milkmen

Andrew Hoffman | Pittsburgh, PA | 07/02/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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"