Hairway to Steven is the fourth full-length studio album by Butthole Surfers, released in April 1988 on Touch and Go. The last full-length Butthole Surfers album of the 1980s marked a midway point in the band's career, straddling their psychedelic-noise roots and the more accessible recordings that would follow. Like Butthole Surfers' previous releases, Hairway to Steven uses non-traditional instrumentation, extensive tape editing, and sound modulation. Unlike its predecessors, which relied almost exclusively on a foundation of electric guitar, bass, and dual drummers, it makes equally heavy use of the acoustic guitar.