Sufjan Stevens
The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album
By Edward Burch

Precocious wunderkind cleans out his creative closet

When Sufjan Stevens began working on his critically acclaimed Illinois release, he initially conceived of the project as a double album. For better or worse, the scope of his ambitions was tempered—by friends, collaborators, record-company folk. Now at long last we’re treated to a glimpse of some of the abandoned ideas for his abridged epic. What’s striking about The Avalanche is how the songs hold together as much more than a curiosity piece for completists. With a bit of imaginations, one can easily imagine how these tracks might have been woven into the fabric of Illinois; some of the selections even seem to suggest a dialogue between the figures represented in Illinois (”Adlai Stevenson,” “Saul Bellow”). And while a few of the songs are little more than demo working tracks, most were expanded upon after the fact—with the help of the Illinoisemakers—so that their realization and presentation for this package results in a body of songs that hold together on their own, and hold up to repeated listening. And for those who couldn’t get enough of “Chicago,” this collection offers three additional arrangements. With the Illinois project now (finally?) out of his system, Stevens has only 48 more to go.