The Avalanche works as an illustration of the writing process but does not stand up to Sufjan’s other endeavors. However, the strongest point of the record are the three alternate versions of the Illinois song, “Chicago,” which allows insights into how Illinois was made. Why the tapes were not burned after the sessions is baffling.
While Illinois sounds ambitious with arrangements that would confound the geekiest of music theory majors, The Avalanche sounds like Sufjan horsing around in the studio. The problem with this record lies in its obvious lack of Sufjan’s usual superhero-like focus.
#To be alone with you sufjan full#
The Avalanche showcases Sufjan in his modus operandi - the songs are full of fluttering string arrangements, soaring background vocals, and painstaking crescendos. The Avalanche, the subsequent B-sides album from the Illinois sessions was released earlier this summer. Besides introducing Stevens to a new tax bracket, Illinois also introduced him to a brand new and larger audience ranging from the typical hipster to Botox injected soccer moms to little old ladies. Last year Sufjan put out his most groundbreaking album Illinois, the conceptual follow-up to Michigan and one of the highest selling indie records of last year. This is how I was introduced to Sufjan Stevens - a Christian friend told me about this “Christian artist who is actually good.” The madness of this claim motivated me to buy the album. Its haunting melodies and arrangement are a suitable fit for the eerie subject matter. It is a collection of raw and lo-fi meditations of subjects ranging from the death of Christ to the transfiguration and the second coming. Seven Swans is for all intents and purposes, a Christian record. To Christian circles, it was the next album, Seven Swans that made Sufjan a hero. Intimate praises of workers and unions, towns and landmarks of Michigan, this record became an underground piece of Americana, a favorite secret of record store clerks everywhere. To secular circles, Sufjan Stevens first made a scene with the album Michigan, a baroque chamber folk tribute to the singer’s home state. I thought this was a new idea at the time, but a group of older kids was beating me to the punch. It also meant that I would try to be better than everyone on MTV. I made a promise to myself in middle school that I would be cool but wouldn’t do drugs and this was my way of living in culture but not of it. In my mind, Christians who tried to sing like Eddie Vedder were even less cool than the pagans who did. My anger existed because the Christians on the radio and MTV were just crappy facsimiles of what was already there. The reason for my anger wasn’t so much that there were Christians on MTV.
When I was a young youth group attendee, I saw the video for Jars Of Clay’s “Flood” on MTV and officially declared myself a hater of the music channel as well as contemporary Christian music, or “CCM” as anyone in Nashville will tell you it is called. Bands like Jars Of Clay and Audio Adrenaline were among the first Christians to pump some Jesus into mainstream MTV watching culture. Ten years ago, the Christians who were succeeding in secular culture were widely sellouts. The accessibility of Christian artists in culture has changed over the past decade.
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