The record includes the songs "Splendid Wars", "Events/Repeat", "Blind", and "Torn Curtain", which were originally featured on the band's debut EP Distortion,[nb 1] a limited edition seven-track cassette tape self-released the previous year.
In a contemporary review of the album, Joyce Millman, music critic at The Boston Phoenix, wrote: "... Soma Holiday ... is a hefty 18-song manifesto ... on class warfare and economic inequality ... [with] frequent midsong tempo changes ... from martial punk to bouncing-off-the-wall hardcore.
Michaels, for instance, emerges as a guitarist who combines flash and restraint [on an album] built on a [hardcore] foundation of gurgling bass and rifle-range drumming, that varies little from track to track [over which his] leads and solos (18 of 'em all different) glow with imaginative detail ... That kind of invigorated playing bolsters Brown's dry, [protest] lyrics ... anchored in slogans ... rather than images [at the risk of] rhetorical overkill ... Brown may be a taciturn lyricist, but he's a demonically frenetic singer who employs an arsenal of orator's tricks ... Soma Holiday ... chronicles a band that's growing wiser and more proficient while losing none of its original commitment..."[4]Around the same time, Jeff Bale from Maximumrocknroll, was of the view that: "A lot of Boston bands sound great, but few--if any--have the political sophistication displayed by the Proletariat on their debut album.
They create equally complex structures, but they replace Gang of Four's sparseness with a full-bodied sound and punky guitar power ... A fabulous record that renews my faith in Bosstown.
[14] Long out of print in its original form, Soma Holiday was re-released, in its entirety, as part of the band's 2-CD anthology Voodoo Economics and Other American Tragedies,[nb 6] compiled in 1998 by Taang!
[9][19][20] In October 1999, apparently under license from the band, the album was reissued in cassette-only format,[nb 7] featuring alternate cover art, on Social Napalm Records,[21][22] a small DIY label based in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.