Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche CD

These are tracks not used on the Illinois album. Some songs were finished, others weren't, requiring substantial editing, arrangements and/or vocals. The centerpiece is the title track, "The Avalanche," a song intended for the leading role on Illinois, but eventually cut and placed as a bonus track on the vinyl release. Almost every song on Illinois has a counterpart on this outtakes release. When Sufjan Stevens' most rabid fans got word of The Avalanche, there was some tangible dissapointment. How, they wondered, can he be getting around to the other 48 states if he's still putting out stuff about Illinois? However much we all want Sufjan to put out new discs, these songs deserve their own frame. It would be a shame if these were locked away, never to be heard, because the work put into this release makes it as satisfying as an album of all-new material. In some ways, it's even more pleasing due to the familiarity of the instrumentation and continuation of the Illinois storyline.

1. The Avalanche mp3
2. Dear Mr. Supercomputer mp3
3. Adlai Stevenson mp3
4. The Vivian Girls Are Visited In the Night by Saint Dararius and his Squadron of Benevolent Butterflies mp3
5. Chicago (Acoustic Version) mp3
6. The Henney Buggy Band mp3
7. Soul Bellow mp3
8. Carlyle Lake mp3
9. Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in his Hair mp3
10. The Mistress Witch from McClure (or, The Mind That Knows Itself) mp3
11. Kaskadia River mp3
12. Chicago (adult contemporary easy listening version) mp3
13. Inaugural Pop Music for Jane Margaret Byrne
14. No Man's Land
15. The Palm Sunday Tornado Hits Crystal Lake
16. The Pick-up
17. The Perpetual Self, or "What Would Saul Alinsky Do?"
18. For Clyde Tombaugh
19. Chicago (Multiple Personality Disorder version)
20. Pittsfield
21. The Undivided Self (for Eppie and Popo)

Released 2006