The Avalanche

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The Avalanche
Studio album by Sufjan Stevens
Released	July 11, 2006
Genre	Folk Rock
Length	75:48
Label	Asthmatic Kitty
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Dusted (Mixed) link Pitchfork (7.2/10) link PopMatters (8/10) link Stylus (B-) link Twisted Ear link
Sufjan Stevens chronology
Illinois (2005)	The Avalanche (2006)	Songs for Christmas (2006)

The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album is an album by indie rock singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens, consisting of outtakes and other recordings from the sessions for his album Illinois. It has been released on the iTunes Store, and copies are available on the website for Asthmatic Kitty, Stevens' record label. The title song "The Avalanche" was also a bonus track on the Illinois vinyl and iTunes release.

The cover features a cartoon depiction of Stevens wearing a cape and costume held aloft by strings, a likely reference to the image of Superman he was forced to remove from the cover of Illinois. He wears a shirt with the "Block I^I", the symbol of varsity athletics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The Block I appears several times in the album art.

A press release on the Asthmatic Kitty website reported that the Illinois album was supposed to be a double record (with somewhere near 50 songs), but the idea was eventually scrapped. After the success of the album, Stevens returned to his analog 8-track recorder in late 2005 and began the process of finishing 21 of the previously abandoned songs, which would eventually become The Avalanche.

Stevens has stated during interviews that although he doesn't like The Avalanche as much as Illinois, he felt it was important to release the songs in light of the success of his most recent album.^{[citation needed]} He has also said that he decided to release the album in order to buy time until his next "50 States Project" release. The album cover jokingly makes reference to the partially commercial reasons for the album's release, declaring that its contents were "shamelessly compiled by Sufjan Stevens". Also on the cover is a Chevrolet Avalanche.

In May 2006, Pitchfork Media was given permission to distribute the second track from The Avalanche, titled "Dear Mr. Supercomputer", on their website in MP3 format. The whole album was leaked to the Internet on May 9, 2006.

The album debuted at #71 on the Billboard Top 200, making it the highest charting Sufjan Stevens release to date [1].

The track "No Man's Land" plays during the closing credits to the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine, which also features "Chicago" by Sufjan Stevens.

[edit] Track listing

1. "The Avalanche" – 3:14
2. "Dear Mr. Supercomputer" – 4:20
3. "Adlai Stevenson" – 2:34
4. "The Vivian Girls Are Visited in the Night by Saint Dargarius and His Squadron of Benevolent Butterflies" – 1:49
5. "Chicago" (Acoustic Version) – 4:40
6. "The Henney Buggy Band" – 3:16
7. "Saul Bellow" – 2:53
8. "Carlyle Lake" – 3:15
9. "Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in His Hair" – 4:17
10. "The Mistress Witch from McClure (Or, the Mind that Knows Itself)" – 3:24
11. "Kaskaskia River" – 2:14
12. "Chicago" (Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version) – 6:06
13. "Inaugural Pop Music for Jane Margaret Byrne" – 1:25
14. "No Man's Land" – 4:45
15. "The Palm Sunday Tornado Hits Crystal Lake" – 1:38
16. "The Pick-Up" – 3:27
17. "The Perpetual Self, or What Would Saul Alinsky Do?" – 2:24
18. "For Clyde Tombaugh" – 3:43
19. "Chicago" (Multiple Personality Disorder Version) – 4:34
20. "Pittsfield" – 6:53
21. "The Undivided Self (For Eppie and Popo)" – 4:59

[edit] Thematic elements

As a pseudo-sequel to Illinois, this album follows the theme of Stevens' "fifty states" project: one album for each constituent state of the United States of America. Explicit and implicit references are made to Illinois persons, places, and institutions throughout the songs. Note that the song "Chicago" originally appeared on the Illinois album. The following list may not be complete:

1. "The Avalanche"
   • Illinois, "my home"
   • Ohio River
   • Mississippi River
2. "Dear Mr. Supercomputer"
   • Supercomputers housed at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's National Center for Supercomputing Applications
   • Superman
   • Secular humanism and God Is Dead
   • Abraham Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation
3. "Adlai Stevenson"
   • Adlai Stevenson, former United States ambassador to the United Nations and governor of Illinois
   • United States presidential election, 1952
   • A possible reference to Stevenson shooting a man in his younger years
4. "The Vivian Girls Are Visited in the Night by Saint Dargarius and His Squadron of Benevolent Butterflies"
   • The children's books and artwork of Henry Darger
5. "Chicago" (Acoustic Version)
   • Chicago, Illinois
   • New York City, New York
6. "The Henney Buggy Band"
   • Henney Buggy Company, an automobile manufacturer from Stephenson County
   • Ronald Reagan Tollway
   • Bloomington, Illinois
7. "Saul Bellow"
   • Saul Bellow
   • Lake Michigan, which borders Illinois
8. "Carlyle Lake"
   • Carlyle Lake, a man-made lake in Carlyle, Illinois
9. "Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in His Hair"
   • Shadfly, a colloquial name for the mayfly
   • State capitol Springfield, Illinois
   • "Capitol Air," or Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport in Springfield, Illinois
10. "The Mistress Witch from McClure (Or, the Mind that Knows Itself)"
    • McClure Precinct in Alexander County
11. "Kaskaskia River"
    • Kaskaskia River
12. "Chicago" (Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version)
    • Adult contemporary and easy listening music genres
13. "Inaugural Pop Music for Jane Margaret Byrne"
    • Pop music
    • Jane Byrne, former mayor of Chicago
14. "No Man's Land"
    • No man's land, although there is none currently in Illinois
    • O'Hare International Airport
    • Jo Daviess County, Illinois
    • Moline, Illinois
    • Panola, Illinois
    • St. Charles, Illinois
    • Danville, Illinois
    • Macon County, Illinois
    • Mississippi River
    • Woodie Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land"
15. "The Palm Sunday Tornado Hits Crystal Lake"
    • Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965
    • Crystal Lake, Illinois
16. "The Pick-Up"
    • Pickup trucks
    • Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln
17. "The Perpetual Self, or What Would Saul Alinsky Do?"
    • Saul Alinsky
18. "For Clyde Tombaugh"
    • Clyde Tombaugh
19. "Chicago" (Multiple Personality Disorder Version)
    • Dissociative identity disorder, or multiple personality disorder
20. "Pittsfield"
    • Pittsfield, Illinois
    • Gulf War
21. "The Undivided Self (For Eppie and Popo)"
    • Identical twin sisters Ann "Eppie" Landers (born Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer) and Abigail "Popo" Van Buren (pen name of Pauline Phillips for the advice column Dear Abby
    • The Undivided Self (ISBN 0-87784-842-4)

Although less explicitly religious than other albums, Stevens' Christian faith is evident in The Avalanche, with explicit references to God in the title track, "The Perpetual Self, or What Would Paul Alinsky Do?," and "The Mistress Witch from McClure (Or, the Mind that Knows Itself)." "Dear Mr. Supercomputer" is apparently about a crisis of faith about the shortcomings of atheistic humanism, and the inability of science to give meaning to human life. "Father John" is a character in "The Henney Buggy Band."

[edit] U. S. chart history

[edit] Trivia

• Stevens alludes to "You Never Give Me Your Money" from the 1969 Beatles album Abbey Road in "Dear Mr. Supercomputer". The original line is "One Two Three Four Five Six Seven / All good children go to heaven." Stevens' lyric is "One Two Three Four Five Six Seven / All computers go to heaven."

• The songs "Chicago" and "No Man's Land" are featured on the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack.

• The cover of the album features a Chevrolet Avalanche on the cover, with an old-style Illinois Liscense Plate which reads, "AKR 022" possibly standing for Asthmatic Kitty Records.

[edit] Notes