Soul Rotation

The Dead Milkmen's first album on Hollywood Records is far from their best, and other than a few stand out numbers, it pales in comparison to their earlier and less reverent records. The inclusion of "If I Had A Gun" and the throwback gem "Wonderfully Colored Plastic War Toys" almost make the record worthwhile, but the Milkmen's gross out humor and repetitive song structures (which were oddly enough a good thing) seem to be something of the past. The epic "The Secret Of Life" manages to make the most of a slightly mature new sound for the group, and the riotous "The Conspiracy Song" is a paranoid delusion that could have only been cooked up by these Philadelphia natives, but other than these songs the record trails off a bit more than necessary and some of the jokes that once made the band such a pleasure to listen to just don't work as well anymore. This record marked the group's departure from Restless Records and in the eyes of many fans it also marks the end of an era where the band could do no wrong. Dead Milkmen diehards will still obviously find parts of the record to love, but compared to what preceded it, Soul Rotation's hits are too few and far between. ~ Peter J. D'Angelo, Rovi