Artist: Sufjan Stevens
Album: The Avalanche
Label: Asthmatic Kitty
Tracks: 21
Review By: Jacob Gehman

So you’ve released three critically applauded albums, five total, and (in a well-publicized statement) promised to create an album for every state in the US, of which Michigan and Illinois have been released. What to do next? Go hard to work on state number three? Tour your whatchamacallit off? Write a novel?

Nope. Instead, Sufjan knew something we didn’t. Illinois was planned as a double album. Those who thought Illinois was too long to begin with are cringing now, which is why they cut it down to one album in the first place. Now, a year later, we get the self-proclaimed “Outtakes and Extras” album. Which is definitely cause for concern. It sounds like an apology and coupled with an album cover that looks like an SUV commercial, my hopes were hardly high.

Especially considering the song, “The Avalanche.” It is a nice song we all heard when it became an iTunes add-on to Illinois, not to mention being all over the mp3 blogs. It is an acoustic song with a rising chorus, but seems fairly sparse sounding. It needs a little something to take it from so-so to whoa! That said, it is not, by any means, a bad song and it fits into Steven’s cannon nicely. However, as the appointed focus of the album, I figured we were in trouble.

“The Avalanche” leads off the album, but following that piece of familiarity is “Dear Mr. Supercomputer,” which may just be the best song Sufjan Stevens has ever written. It is a dizzying journey through heavy beats and peppy horns and some breathless changes in direction. From here on out the album is promised to be an unexpected and great ride, like any Sufjan cd.

There are two things that justify the “Outtakes and Extras” label on the cover. First, unlike with his last four releases there isn’t a great flow to the album. While his other cds feel like albums, this one just feels like a collection of great songs. I have trouble pinning exactly what the difference is, but it is there.

Second, there are three different versions of “Chicago” present on The Avalanche. Chicago was one of the popular tracks off of Illinois. The first of the three versions on The Avalanche appears at track 5, the “Acoustic Version.” I would argue that it isn’t so much acoustic as it is more hushed and subdued than the original. At track twelve is the “Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version,” which isn’t as funny as it sounds on paper. It would have been a lot more interesting if he had made it totally Adult Contemporary and Easy Listening. Instead you could have labeled it “Acoustic Version Part Two” and gotten a better idea about the sound. Finally, track 19 brings us the “Multiple Personality Disorder Version,” which is the most interesting of the three. It feels quite scattered and disoriented and, at times, stressed to the breaking point. While all three have their own merit, we probably would have been ok with just one or two extra versions.

Without those two elements of the album this could simply have been The Avalanche: Illinois Part Two because most of the songs don’t display any kind of drop in quality or execution. There are at least eight tracks that are just great songs and, after you eliminate some of the instrumental tracks and the three Chicagos, that leaves a handful of decent songs like “The Avalanche” which won’t make any favorites songs list, but are worth having, too. Indeed, for those who prefer the Seven Swans era may even find some of their favorites among the tracks I am less excited about.

The bottom line: This album won’t win any converts to Sufjan Steven’s fold, but for those of us already in the flock The Avalanche is a welcome bridge until we get his next project.