Queen Hygiene II / Rough Day at the Orifice

This CD is a reissue of Arab on Radar's first two albums, Queen Hygiene II (recorded in 1997) and the out-of-print "Rough Day at the Orifice" (recorded in 1998). Queen Hygiene II was their only album with bassist Andrea Fiset, and actually their only album with a bassist, period. At this stage, they had already moved beyond the no wave punk-disco of their earlier singles, and had most of their signature elements in place: the yelping vocals, offensive lyrics, hotly recorded drums, and scraping dual guitars. Public Image Ltd., Scratch Acid, and Captain Beefheart could be considered reference points, but it would be hard to mistake Arab on Radar for anyone else, even at this stage in their careers. That said, Queen Hygiene is still (relatively) more "traditional," in a rock sense, than the subsequent Rough Day, with Fiset's fuzz-bass adding a melodic and rhythmic foundation that is missing on that album (and its follow-up, Soak the Saddle). It's still sick and abrasive, though, with guitars that squeal like cheap alarm clocks and lyrics that seem equally calculated to make listeners uncomfortable ("Mommy is in the doghouse/Soaking up the piss with cotton balls/And I am in a snowsuit/With a dog whistle" goes part of the first song). It contains some of their best songs, including "Attack on Tijuana," "St. Patrick's Gay Parade," and "Cop Song," and should be heard by any Arab on Radar fan. Album title aside, Rough Day... isn't as good, suffering from a tinny, bass-deficient mix that's hard to listen to, even by this band's standards. The songs are more jagged and spastic than before, but they just don't connect as well as they do on their next album, Soak the Saddle. Still, it's nice to have Rough Day... on the CD, especially since the two albums together only add up to about 41 minutes of playing time. So get it for Queen Hygiene, and consider Rough Day a free bonus.