Yerself Is Steam

'Yerself Is Steam' is the 1991 debut album by Mercury Rev. From the comic malevolence of David Baker's mad-scientist creations to Jonathan Donahue's opiate lullabies, 'Yerself Is Steam' is vividly cinematic - between the roller coaster feedback of 'Coney Island Cyclone' and the narcoleptic ebb and flow of the climactic 'Very Sleepy Rivers,' the songs perfectly evoke their titular aspirations; likewise, from the album title (say it out loud) onward, the lyrics revel in the quirks and idiosyncrasies of language, buoyed by a homophonous prankishness and dada rhyme schemes, which, in their own odd way, suggest a kind of poetry. A near-perfect debut from a band that would only get better from here on out. LP - Limited to 750 copies on Yellow and Orange Vinyl.