Paint as a Fragrance is the first studio album by the San Diegorock band Rocket from the Crypt.[4][5] It was released in 1991 by Cargo Records and Headhunter Records.[6] It is the band's only recording featuring their original lineup, which included drummer Sean Flynn and backing vocalist Elaina Torres.[7] Shortly after the release of Paint as a Fragrance, Sean and Elaina moved away from San Diego and the group re-invented itself as a punk-inspired rock & roll band with a horn section.
Westword called the album "an impressive, although scattered, sampler of the band's distinctive punk/pop sound."[8]Trouser Press wrote that "while the album does boast a surfeit of energy, the band often feints when it should jab, backing off intensely memorable riffs while dragging uneventful throbs to the point of tedium."[9]Stylus Magazine called it a "muscular, Pixies-ish, less than stellar 1991 debut that rarely hinted at the brilliance to come."[10]
