The Way to Salvation (1991)

Last year, King Missile was the purveyor of a cult hit titled ''Jesus Is Way Cool.'' On it, over churchlike organ chords, John S. Hall patiently explained the tenets of Christianity thusly: ''Jesus told people to eat his body and drink his blood/I mean, that's so cool!'' On The Way to Salvation, King Missile's fourth — but first widely distributed — recording, Hall expands his irony-laden metaphysics-for-idiots message on songs like ''My Heart Is a Flower'' and ''To Walk Among the Pigs,'' his not entirely uncynical philosophy of life in which he muses quizzically on, as he puts it, ''all that pigness entails.'' Grim-feeling grown-ups might find Hall's deadpan spoken-word delivery and sophomoric sense of humor intensely irritating. Luckily, though, Hall has recently acquired the ability to sing instead of sing-song, and on tunes like ''Listen to Me,'' ''Betrayal Takes Two,'' and the blistering title cut, he rocks out with (possibly accidental) sincerity. No college dorm room should be without this one. B+