The Avalanche: Limited Vinyl 2LP

The little secret behind Sufjan Steven’s acclaimed Illinois 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 returned to the remaining songs on his 8-track. What he uncovered went beyond the merits of nostalgia. Sufjan gleaned 21 tracks from remaining material; some songs were in finished form, while others were merely outlines. Most of the material required substantial editing, new arrangements or vocals, and much of the work was done at the end of 2005 or in January the following year. As the title song “The Avalanche” bemuses, "I call you once my friends,” Sufjan took in the odd musical misfits and gathered them together like a party of good friends. “The songs on Avalanche are nearly as good as the ones on Illinois, although with surprising synth bursts and craggy guitar noise that were sandpapered off of its predecessor.” SPIN // “Most of these songs are just as good, if not better, than the ones that actually made the cut.” E Online // “All the songs here are fully realised and often the equal of those on their parent album.” Observer

Tracks:
A1 The Avalanche
A2 Dear Mr. Supercomputer
A3 Adlai Stevenson
A4 The Vivian Girls Are Visited In The Night By Saint Dargarius And His Squadron Of Benevolent Butterflies
A5 Chicago (Acoustic Version)
A6 The Henney Buggy Band
B7 Saul Bellow
B8 Carlyle Lake
B9 Springfield, Or Bobby Got A Shadfly Caught In His Hair
B10 The Mistress Witch From McClure (Or, The Mind That Knows Itself)
B11 Kaskaskia River
C12 Chicago (Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version)
C13 Inaugural Pop Music For Jayne Margaret Byrne
C14 No Man’s Land
C15 The Palm Sunday Tornado Hits Crystal Lake
C16 The Pick-Up
D17 The Perpetual Self, Or “What Would Saul Alinsky Do?”
D18 For Clyde Tombaugh
D19 Chicago (Multiple Personality Disorder Version)
D20 Pittsfield
D21 The Undivided Self (For Eppie And Popo)