YERSELF IS STEAM

Mercury Rev's debut is an early nineties psych album. It's very much of its time but in a good way. In the mid-90's I found a cassette of this left in an old house, took it home and gave it some listens. It might be incomprehensible at first and leave the listener slightly winded with it's cacophony of psychedelic noise. I felt that way to be honest and didn't hear anything of band again until they released Deserter's Songs in 1998. I revisited this early stuff recently though and now I quite like it.

The opener "Chasing a Bee" is quite a powerful song beginning with a light acoustic riff which progresses to epic proportions. David Baker's voice is very deep compared to the more higher-pitched singing of Jon Donahue.

"Syringe Mouth" has some brutal guitar feedback whilst "Blue And Black" is lighter with some meandering piano. The lyrics are very odd and twisted throughout. With "Coney Island Cyclone" the band demonstrate their appreciation for sweet melodies but not without a chaotic climax. Conversely, Very Sleeping Rivers is a whirring disturbed track of much greater length and ambience.

This is Mercury Rev at their most weird and whimsical. For me, it isn't the most wonderful thing they have ever accomplished. Their later sound is a lot better. But this is still interesting. 3 stars.