In the early days, Joe Jack would often answer fan mail personally. A close friend of mine received such a letter. Colorful crayon drawings decorated the pages. He talked about how they were recording a new album, and that they were thinking of calling it "Stoney's". This album was then released in 1992 under the title "Soul Rotation". We figured they just decided to not use the "Stoney's" title that he mentioned in the letter. Much to our surprise, in 1995 (two albums later) they released "Stoney's Extra Stout (PIG)". I am glad that they saved that title for the later release, as Soul Rotation is a much better title for this particular album.
The Dead Milkmen have never been overly concerned with the technical side of their playing, most often going for a more natural "if it sounds good, play it" kind of sound. On songs like "Swordfish" you can even hear where they mess up a little. However, this is part of their overall appeal. As a band, they never seemed to take themselves (or their music) too seriously.
With Soul Rotation, they definitely took a step in a different direction than their previous material. Overall, the songs are more serious. That's in regards to the musical composition, lyrics, and production. However, serious for The Dead Milkmen is still on the humorous side. Songs like God's Kid Brother, If I Had A Gun, and Here Comes Mr. X have lyrics that would match the humor on previous albums. All Around the World and The Conspiracy Song focus on the paranoid side of the Milkmen.
Another noticeable change is that Rodney Anonymous, who had previously supplied a majority of the vocals, stepped down and took to playing the keyboards on most tracks. He still sings a few of the songs himself, but this album is largely sung by Joe Jack (who traditionally supplied vocals for only a few tracks per album).
In addition to added keyboard tracks, they hired an entire horn section (Baritone Sax, Alto & Tenor Sax, Trumpet, and Trombone according to the liner notes). They make extensive use of the horn section on How's It Gonna Be, Big Scary Place, and Shaft In Greenland. Considering that the bands previous releases rarely, if ever, had horns, I can understand why some fans were put off by this.
However, the horns (and even the keyboards) are not in every song. Every track is still distinctly Dead Milkmen. Joe's guitar is great as always, including some really catchy riffs and some great solos (Belafonte's Inferno and If I Had A Gun have quite good solos). Dave's bass is wonderful as is Deans drumming. I really enjoy Rodney's keyboard parts, and it was a good way to keep him involved on the "Joe" tracks (remember the video for Punk Rock Girl which had Rodney standing around reading a newspaper because he didn't have any input for that song).
Overall, this is probably my favorite Dead Milkmen album, and hands down one of my favorite albums of all time. It has enough classic Milkmen style to keep fans interested, but also a lot of new style brought in by the additional instruments and production values.
The bad news is that this album was only available for a short time due to problems with Hollywood records. They barely promoted the album at all, and shortly after releasing their next album Not Richard But Dick, they left Hollywood records. However, Hollywood decided to be jerks about it and refused to give the Milkmen the rights to the two albums and one single released by the label. Thus, this album is long out of print and difficult to find.
Here are my individual ratings for each song:
At The Moment - 5
The Secret Of Life - 4
Big Scary Place - 3
Belafonte's Inferno - 4.5
The Consipiracy Song - 3.5
How It's Gonna Be - 3.5
All Around the World - 4
Silly Dreams - 5
Wonderfully Colored Plastic War Toys - 5
God's Kid Brother - 3.5
If I Had A Gun - 4.5
Here Comes Mr. X - 3.5
Shaft In Greenland - 3
Best Lyric-
"Silly Dreams" - You said you'd only stay a week and left two cats for me to keep. You told me not to feed them tuna or they'd throw up. I fed them tuna, and they threw up for hours and hours and hours and hours. It was puffy like a sponge, the color of the sidewalk. And it smelled like the dirty rags beneath the sink.
Pros-
Classic Dead Milkmen mixed with new ideas and high production values
Hand drawn cover art (by Dean Clean)
At The Moment, Silly Dreams, Wonderfully Colored Plastic War Toys
Cons-
Some fans were put off by the new direction
Shaft in Greenland is a pretty weak song
Conclusion-
The bottom line is, this is one of my top 5 favorite albums of all time. If you can find a copy somewhere I highly recommend getting it.
The Dead Milkmen are:
Rodney Anonymous (listed as H.P. Hovercraft)
Joe Jack Talcum (listed as Butterfly Fairweather)
Dave Blood
Dean Clean
