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Sufjan Stevens

The Avalanche

Release Date: November 7, 2006
  • Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche
Sufjan Stevens

The Avalanche

Release Date: November 7, 2006
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The little secret behind the Illinois record is that it was originally conceived as a double album, culminating in a musical collage of nearly 50 songs.

But as the project began to develop into an unwieldy epic, common sense weighed in—as did the opinions of others—and the project was cut in half.

But as 2005 came to a close, Sufjan Stevens returned to the old, forsaken songs on his 8-track like a grandfather remembering his youth, indulging in old journals and newspaper clippings. What he uncovered went beyond the merits of nostalgia; it was more like an ensemble of capricious friends and old acquaintances wearing party outfits, waiting to be let in at the front door, for warm drinks and interesting conversation.

Among them were Saul Bellow, Ann Landers, Adlai Stevenson, and a brief cameo from Henry Darger's Vivian Girls. The gathering that followed would become the setting for the songs on The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album.

Tracklist

  • The Avalanche
  • Dear Mr Supercomputer
  • Adlai Stevenson
  • The Vivian Girls Are Visited
  • Chicago (acoustic version)
  • The Henney Buggy Band
  • Saul Bellow
  • Carlyle Lake
  • Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in his Hair
  • The Mistress Witch from McClure
  • Kaskaskia River
  • Chicago (adult contemporary easy listening version)
  • Inaugural Pop Music for Jane Margaret Byrne
  • No Man's Land
  • The Palm Sunday Tornado Hits Crystal Lake
  • The Pick-up
  • The Perpetual Self, or "What Would Saul Alinsky Do?"
  • For Clyde Tombaugh
  • Chicago (Multiple Personality Disorder version)
  • Pittsfield
  • The Undivided Self (for Eppie and Popo)

Reviews

  • "The most vulnerable record of his celebrated career."

    - Gold Flake Paint

  • "Mike Kinsella expertly picks apart his bleak and frank stitches once more as Owen."

    - The Line of Best Fit

  • "This is a fine addition to an already vast discography, and it's as unique and powerful as just about anything else you'll find in it."

    - Brooklyn Vegan

  • "With its non-stop fragility and intense vulnerability, The Avalanche demonstrates that no one wrings desperation from an acoustic guitar quite like Mike Kinsella."

    - Under The Radar

  • "Heartbreak, melodic intricacy, and lush arrangements shape Owen’s tenth album, The Avalanche."

    - Chicago Reader

  • "Nine songs of exquisitely crafted acoustic indie rock that wears its heart, sometimes painfully, on its sleeve."

    - The Line of Best Fit

  • "The Avalanche, Kinsella’s tenth Owen album, is his most direct, refined, and one of the best (if not the best) album in the wide Owen discography."

    - Under The Radar

  • "Deeply honest"

    - NPR Music

  • "Kinsella is a thoughtful, often surprising lyricist, but his voice, cottony in its soft delivery, feels of a piece with his hypnotic fingerpicking and rich strings, soothing like a mobile spinning above a child’s crib."

    - AV Club