Sufjan Stevens ***
The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras From the Illinois Album
Asthmatic Kitty

Random but mostly precious nuggets from indie folkie

SUFJAN STEVENS’ 2005 BREAKTHROUGH, Illinois, was a sprawling album about the Prairie State, complete with folky history lessons, songs about Superman and ornate strings-horns-woodwinds arrangements. For all its off-kilter conceptual hoo-hah, Illinois flourished, thanks to its warm, whimsical musicality and Stevens’ melodic talents, and those same qualities shine through to a lesser extent on this outtakes collection. The Avalanche is less focused than its predecessor: Overstuffed cuts like “The Pick-up” work up a woodlands version of rock bluster, and “Dear Mr. Supercomputer” imitates Stereolab to no discernible effect. But when Stevens brings his A-game, he’s great: “The Henney Buggy Band” sounds like prime Nick Drake backed by a punkschooled chamber orchestra, and “Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in His Hair” burns with gorgeous slo-mo harmonies and shadowy, impressionistic regret. Stevens’ charm, like that of his spiritual homeboy Neil Young, lies in teetering on the edge of cloudy-headed overindulgence, and The Avalanche packs enough weirdo magic to make it more than just a gift to his growing cult.