The Avalanche
Encyclopedia
The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album is an album by indie rock
singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens
, consisting of outtakes and other recordings from the sessions for his album Illinois
. The title song "The Avalanche" was also a bonus track on the Illinois vinyl and iTunes release.
Stevens has stated during interviews that although he doesn't like The Avalanche as much as Illinois, he felt it was important to release the songs in light of the success of his most recent album. He has also said that he decided to release the album in order to buy time until his next "The 50 States" project," release. The album cover jokingly makes reference to the partially commercial reasons for the album's release, declaring that its contents were "shamelessly compiled by Sufjan Stevens".
In May 2006, Pitchfork Media
was given permission to distribute the second track from The Avalanche, titled "Dear Mr. Supercomputer", on their website in MP3
format. The whole album was leaked to the Internet
on May 9, 2006.
The track "No Man's Land" plays during the closing credits to the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine
, which also features "Chicago" by Sufjan Stevens.
The track "The Perpetual Self, or 'What Would Saul Alinsky Do?'" plays during the trailer for the film Babies
.
he was forced to remove from the cover of Illinois. He wears a shirt with a Block-type Serif
letter I
; the symbol of varsity athletics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The "Block I" appears several times in the album art. A Chevrolet Avalanche
is featured on the cover, with an old-style Illinois License Plate which reads, "AKR 022", a reference to the catalog number of the album on Asthmatic Kitty Records. The license plate of the police car in the liner notes illustration reads "A NO NO". This is possibly a reference to the first track of the album Tell Another Joke at the Ol' Choppin' Block
by the Danielson Famile
. Sufjan is an honorary member of the Famile.
. Explicit and implicit references are made to Illinois persons, places, and institutions throughout the songs. Note that the song "Chicago" originally appeared on the Illinois album. The following list may not be complete:
Other references
Stevens alludes to "You Never Give Me Your Money
" from the 1969 Beatles album Abbey Road in "Dear Mr. Supercomputer". The original line is "One Two Three Four Five Six Seven / All good children go to heaven." Stevens' lyric is "One Two Three Four Five Six Seven / All computers go to heaven."
's Best of 2006 The album made several other Best of 2006 lists .
Indie rock
Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...
singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens is an American singer-songwriter and musician born in Detroit, Michigan. Stevens first began releasing his music on Asthmatic Kitty, a label co-founded with his stepfather, beginning with the 1999 release, A Sun Came...
, consisting of outtakes and other recordings from the sessions for his album Illinois
Illinois (album)
Illinois is a 2005 concept album by American indie folk songwriter Sufjan Stevens. His fifth studio album, Illinois features songs referencing places, events, and persons related to the U.S. state of Illinois...
. The title song "The Avalanche" was also a bonus track on the Illinois vinyl and iTunes release.
Recording and release
A press release on the Asthmatic Kitty website reported that the Illinois album was supposed to be a double record (with somewhere near 50 songs), but the idea was eventually scrapped. After the success of the album, Stevens returned to his analog 8-track recorder in late 2005 and began the process of finishing 21 of the previously abandoned songs, which would eventually become The Avalanche.Stevens has stated during interviews that although he doesn't like The Avalanche as much as Illinois, he felt it was important to release the songs in light of the success of his most recent album. He has also said that he decided to release the album in order to buy time until his next "The 50 States" project," release. The album cover jokingly makes reference to the partially commercial reasons for the album's release, declaring that its contents were "shamelessly compiled by Sufjan Stevens".
In May 2006, Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
was given permission to distribute the second track from The Avalanche, titled "Dear Mr. Supercomputer", on their website in MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
format. The whole album was leaked to the Internet
Internet leak
An Internet leak occurs when a party's confidential information is released to the public on the Internet. Various types of information and data can be, and have been, "leaked" to the Internet, the most common being personal information, computer software and source code, and artistic works such...
on May 9, 2006.
The track "No Man's Land" plays during the closing credits to the 2006 film Little Miss Sunshine
Little Miss Sunshine
Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American comedy-drama film. The road movie's plot follows a family's trip to a children's beauty pageant.Little Miss Sunshine was the directorial film debut of the husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The screenplay was written by first-time writer...
, which also features "Chicago" by Sufjan Stevens.
The track "The Perpetual Self, or 'What Would Saul Alinsky Do?'" plays during the trailer for the film Babies
Babies (film)
Babies, also known as Baby and Bébé, is a 2010 French documentary film by Thomas Balmès that follows four humans through their first year after birth...
.
Artwork
The cover features a cartoon depiction of Stevens wearing a cape and costume held aloft by strings, a likely reference to the image of SupermanSuperman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
he was forced to remove from the cover of Illinois. He wears a shirt with a Block-type Serif
Serif
In typography, serifs are semi-structural details on the ends of some of the strokes that make up letters and symbols. A typeface with serifs is called a serif typeface . A typeface without serifs is called sans serif or sans-serif, from the French sans, meaning “without”...
letter I
I
I is the ninth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:In Semitic, the letter may have originated in a hieroglyph for an arm that represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative in Egyptian, but was reassigned to by Semites, because their word for "arm" began with that sound...
; the symbol of varsity athletics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The "Block I" appears several times in the album art. A Chevrolet Avalanche
Chevrolet Avalanche
The Chevrolet Avalanche is a four-door, five or six passenger sport utility truck sharing GM's long-wheelbase chassis used on the Chevrolet Suburban and Cadillac Escalade EXT. Unlike the typical pickup truck, the open bed of the Avalanche opens to the back seat area through a folding panel and a...
is featured on the cover, with an old-style Illinois License Plate which reads, "AKR 022", a reference to the catalog number of the album on Asthmatic Kitty Records. The license plate of the police car in the liner notes illustration reads "A NO NO". This is possibly a reference to the first track of the album Tell Another Joke at the Ol' Choppin' Block
Tell Another Joke at the Ol' Choppin' Block
Tell Another Joke at the Ol' Choppin' Block is the second full length album from New Jersey indie rock band Danielson Famile.-Track listing:# "A No No" – 3:51# "Ye Olde Battleaxe" – 4:39# "Me To Datee" – 3:32# "The Lord's Rest" – 4:58...
by the Danielson Famile
Danielson Famile
Danielson is an American Rock band from Clarksboro, New Jersey that plays indie pop gospel music. The group consists of frontman Daniel Smith and a number of various artists with whom he collaborates...
. Sufjan is an honorary member of the Famile.
Track listing
- "The Avalanche" – 3:14
- "Dear Mr. Supercomputer" – 4:20
- "Adlai Stevenson" – 2:34
- "The Vivian Girls Are Visited in the Night by Saint Dargarius and His Squadron of Benevolent Butterflies" – 1:49
- "Chicago" (Acoustic Version) – 4:40
- "The Henney Buggy Band" – 3:16
- "Saul Bellow" – 2:53
- "Carlyle Lake" – 3:15
- "Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in His Hair" – 4:17
- "The Mistress Witch from McClure (Or, the Mind that Knows Itself)" – 3:24
- "Kaskaskia River" – 2:14
- "Chicago" (Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version) – 6:06
- "Inaugural Pop Music for Jane Margaret Byrne" – 1:25
- "No Man's Land" – 4:45
- "The Palm Sunday Tornado Hits Crystal Lake" – 1:38
- "The Pick-Up" – 3:27
- "The Perpetual Self, or 'What Would Saul Alinsky Do?'" – 2:24
- "For Clyde Tombaugh" – 3:43
- "Chicago" (Multiple Personality Disorder Version) – 4:34
- "Pittsfield" – 6:53
- "The Undivided Self (For Eppie and Popo)" – 4:59
Thematic elements
As a pseudo-sequel to Illinois, this album follows the theme of Stevens' "fifty states" project: one album for each constituent state of the United States of AmericaUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Explicit and implicit references are made to Illinois persons, places, and institutions throughout the songs. Note that the song "Chicago" originally appeared on the Illinois album. The following list may not be complete:
- "The Avalanche"
- IllinoisIllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, "my home" - Chevrolet AvalancheChevrolet AvalancheThe Chevrolet Avalanche is a four-door, five or six passenger sport utility truck sharing GM's long-wheelbase chassis used on the Chevrolet Suburban and Cadillac Escalade EXT. Unlike the typical pickup truck, the open bed of the Avalanche opens to the back seat area through a folding panel and a...
- Ohio RiverOhio RiverThe Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
- Mississippi RiverMississippi RiverThe Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
- Illinois
- "Dear Mr. Supercomputer"
- SupercomputerSupercomputerA supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...
s housed at University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignThe University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
's National Center for Supercomputing ApplicationsNational Center for Supercomputing ApplicationsThe National Center for Supercomputing Applications is an American state-federal partnership to develop and deploy national-scale cyberinfrastructure that advances science and engineering. NCSA operates as a unit of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign but it provides high-performance... - SupermanSupermanSuperman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
- Secular humanismSecular humanismSecular Humanism, alternatively known as Humanism , is a secular philosophy that embraces human reason, ethics, justice, and the search for human fulfillment...
and God Is DeadGod is dead"God is dead" is a widely-quoted statement by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It first appears in The Gay Science , in sections 108 , 125 , and for a third time in section 343... - Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
and the Emancipation ProclamationEmancipation ProclamationThe Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...
- Supercomputer
- "Adlai Stevenson"
- Adlai Stevenson, former United States ambassadorUnited States Ambassador to the United NationsThe United States Ambassador to the United Nations is the leader of the U.S. delegation, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. The position is more formally known as the "Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations, with the rank and status of Ambassador...
to the United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
and governor of IllinoisGovernor of IllinoisThe Governor of Illinois is the chief executive of the State of Illinois and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by popular suffrage of residents of the state.... - United States presidential election, 1952United States presidential election, 1952The United States presidential election of 1952 took place in an era when Cold War tension between the United States and the Soviet Union was escalating rapidly. In the United States Senate, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin had become a national figure after chairing congressional...
- Stevenson's accidental shooting death of a playmate, Ruth Merwin, as a young child
- Adlai Stevenson, former United States ambassador
- "The Vivian Girls Are Visited in the Night by Saint Dargarius and His Squadron of Benevolent Butterflies"
- Henry DargerHenry DargerHenry Joseph Darger, Jr. was a reclusive American writer and artist who worked as a custodian in Chicago, Illinois...
's 15-volume outsider artOutsider ArtThe term outsider art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut , a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art by insane-asylum inmates.While...
manuscript The Story of the Vivian Girls
- Henry Darger
- "ChicagoChicagoChicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
" (Acoustic Version)- Chicago, Illinois
- New York City, New York
- "The Henney Buggy Band"
- Henney Buggy Company, an automobile manufacturer from Stephenson CountyStephenson County, IllinoisAs of the census of 2000, there were 48,979 people, 19,785 households, and 13,473 families residing in the county. The population density was 87 people per square mile . There were 21,713 housing units at an average density of 38 per square mile...
- Ronald Reagan Tollway
- Bloomington, IllinoisBloomington, IllinoisBloomington is a city in McLean County, Illinois, United States and the county seat. It is adjacent to Normal, Illinois, and is the more populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington-Normal metropolitan area...
- Henney Buggy Company, an automobile manufacturer from Stephenson County
- "Saul Bellow"
- Saul BellowSaul BellowSaul Bellow was a Canadian-born Jewish American writer. For his literary contributions, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts...
- Lake MichiganLake MichiganLake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
, which borders Illinois
- Saul Bellow
- "Carlyle Lake"
- Carlyle LakeCarlyle LakeCarlyle Lake is a reservoir largely located in Clinton County, Illinois, with smaller portions of the lake within Bond and Fayette counties. It is the largest man-made lake in Illinois, and the largest lake wholly contained within the state.-History:...
, a man-made lakeWater reservoirA reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...
in Carlyle, IllinoisCarlyle, IllinoisCarlyle is a city in Clinton County, Illinois, United States. The population was 3,406 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Clinton County.Carlyle is located approximately 50 miles east of St...
- Carlyle Lake
- "Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in His Hair"
- Shadfly, a colloquial name for the mayflyMayflyMayflies are insects which belong to the Order Ephemeroptera . They have been placed into an ancient group of insects termed the Palaeoptera, which also contains dragonflies and damselflies...
- State capitol Springfield, IllinoisSpringfield, IllinoisSpringfield is the third and current capital of the US state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 117,400 , making it the sixth most populated city in the state and the second most populated Illinois city outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area...
- "Capitol Air," or Abraham Lincoln Capital AirportAbraham Lincoln Capital Airport-Airport services:The airport has a Subway, a gift shop and an automated teller machine. TV and a lounge are also provided at the airport.-External links:* , official site* , official site* from USGS The National Map**...
in Springfield, Illinois
- Shadfly, a colloquial name for the mayfly
- "The Mistress Witch from McClure (Or, the Mind that Knows Itself)"
- McClureMcClure, IllinoisMcClure is a village in McClure Precinct, Alexander County, Illinois . It was incorporated in 2004 and had an estimated population of 369 in 2007.McClure is part of the Cape Girardeau–Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area.-References:...
in Alexander CountyAlexander County, IllinoisAlexander County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 8,238, which is a decrease of 14.1% from 9,590 in 2000. Its county seat is Cairo. Alexander County is part of the Cape Girardeau–Jackson, MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical...
- McClure
- "Kaskaskia River"
- Kaskaskia RiverKaskaskia RiverThe Kaskaskia River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately long, in central and southern Illinois in the United States. The second largest river system within Illinois, it drains a rural area of farms, as well as rolling hills along river bottoms of hardwood forests in its lower...
- Kaskaskia River
- "Chicago" (Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version)
- Adult contemporaryAdult contemporary musicAdult contemporary music is a broad style of popular music that ranges from lush 1950s and 1960s vocal music to predominantly ballad-heavy music with varying degrees of rock influence, as well as a radio format that plays such music....
and easy listeningEasy listeningEasy listening is a broad style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the 1950s, evolving out of big band music, and related to MOR music as played on many AM radio stations. It encompasses the exotica, beautiful music, light music, lounge music, ambient music, and space age pop genres...
music genreMusic genreA music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music...
s
- Adult contemporary
- "Inaugural Pop Music for Jane Margaret Byrne"
- Pop musicPop musicPop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
- Jane ByrneJane ByrneJane Margaret Byrne was the first and to date only female Mayor of Chicago. She served from April 16, 1979 to April 29, 1983. Chicago is the largest city in the United States to have had a female mayor as of 2011.-Early political career:...
, former mayor of ChicagoMayor of ChicagoThe Mayor of Chicago is the chief executive of Chicago, Illinois, the third largest city in the United States. He or she is charged with directing city departments and agencies, and with the advice and consent of the Chicago City Council, appoints department and agency leaders.-Appointment...
- Pop music
- "No Man's Land"
- No man's landNo man's landNo man's land is a term for land that is unoccupied or is under dispute between parties that leave it unoccupied due to fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dumping ground for refuse between fiefdoms...
, although there is none currently in Illinois - O'Hare International AirportO'Hare International AirportChicago O'Hare International Airport , also known as O'Hare Airport, O'Hare Field, Chicago Airport, Chicago International Airport, or simply O'Hare, is a major airport located in the northwestern-most corner of Chicago, Illinois, United States, northwest of the Chicago Loop...
- Jo Daviess County, IllinoisJo Daviess County, IllinoisJo Daviess County is a county located in the northwest corner of U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 22,678, which is an increase of 1.7% from 22,289 in 2000. Its county seat is Galena....
- Moline, IllinoisMoline, IllinoisMoline is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States, with a population of 45,792 in 2010. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. The Quad Cities has a population of...
- Panola, IllinoisPanola, IllinoisPanola is a village in Woodford County, Illinois, United States. The population was 33 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area....
- St. Charles, IllinoisSt. Charles, IllinoisSt. Charles is a Chicago suburb in Kane and DuPage counties of Illinois, United States, and is roughly west of Chicago on Illinois Route 64. According to a 2004 census estimate, the city has a total population of 32,134. The official city slogan is Pride of the Fox, after the Fox River that runs...
- Danville, IllinoisDanville, IllinoisDanville is a city in Vermilion County, Illinois, United States. It is the principal city of the'Danville, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area' which encompasses all of Danville and Vermilion County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 32,467. It is the county seat of...
- Macon County, Illinois
- Mississippi River
- Woody GuthrieWoody GuthrieWoodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
's "This Land Is Your LandThis Land Is Your Land"This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 based on an existing melody, in response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent. Tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on...
"
- No man's land
- "The Palm Sunday Tornado Hits Crystal Lake"
- Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965
- Crystal Lake, IllinoisCrystal Lake, IllinoisCrystal Lake is a city located in southeastern McHenry County in northeastern Illinois, in the Chicago suburbs. It is named after Crystal Lake, a lake located west-southwest of downtown. Crystal Lake is also a suburb of the city of Chicago. The population was 38,000 at the 2000 census, but as of...
- "The Pick-Up"
- Pickup truckPickup truckA pickup truck is a light motor vehicle with an open-top rear cargo area .-Definition:...
s - Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln
- Pickup truck
- "The Perpetual Self, or What Would Saul Alinsky Do?"
- Saul AlinskySaul AlinskySaul David Alinsky was a Jewish American community organizer and writer. He is generally considered to be the founder of modern community organizing, and has been compared in Playboy magazine to Thomas Paine as being "one of the great American leaders of the nonsocialist left." He is often noted...
- Saul Alinsky
- "For Clyde Tombaugh"
- Clyde TombaughClyde TombaughClyde William Tombaugh was an American astronomer. Although he is best known for discovering the dwarf planet Pluto in 1930, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper Belt, Tombaugh also discovered many asteroids; he also called for serious scientific...
- Clyde Tombaugh
- "Chicago" (Multiple Personality Disorder Version)
- Dissociative identity disorderDissociative identity disorderDissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities , each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment....
, or multiple personality disorder
- Dissociative identity disorder
- "Pittsfield"
- Pittsfield, IllinoisPittsfield, IllinoisPittsfield is a city in Pike County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,211 at the 2000 census.-History:The city was named after Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It is the county seat of Pike County...
- Gulf WarGulf WarThe Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
- Pittsfield, Illinois
- "The Undivided Self (For Eppie and Popo)"
- Identical twinTwinA twin is one of two offspring produced in the same pregnancy. Twins can either be monozygotic , meaning that they develop from one zygote that splits and forms two embryos, or dizygotic because they develop from two separate eggs that are fertilized by two separate sperm.In contrast, a fetus...
sisters Ann "Eppie" Landers (born Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer) and Abigail "Popo" Van Buren (pen namePen nameA pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
of Pauline PhillipsPauline PhillipsPauline Phillips is an American advice columnist and radio show host who began the "Dear Abby" column in 1956. Married to Morton Phillips, the couple has two children, a son, Edward Jay Phillips, and a daughter, Jeanne Phillips....
for the advice column Dear AbbyDear AbbyDear Abby is the name of the advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name Abigail Van Buren and carried on today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name....
) - The Undivided Self (ISBN 0-87784-842-4)
- Identical twin
Other references
Stevens alludes to "You Never Give Me Your Money
You Never Give Me Your Money
"You Never Give Me Your Money" is a song by The Beatles that opens the climactic medley on side two of the album Abbey Road. It was written by Paul McCartney and is credited to Lennon–McCartney.-Structure:...
" from the 1969 Beatles album Abbey Road in "Dear Mr. Supercomputer". The original line is "One Two Three Four Five Six Seven / All good children go to heaven." Stevens' lyric is "One Two Three Four Five Six Seven / All computers go to heaven."
Critical reception
The album ranked 9th on Almost Cool's Best of 2006 and #9 on UncutUNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
's Best of 2006 The album made several other Best of 2006 lists .
Sales chart history
The album debuted at #71 on the Billboard Top 200, making it the second highest charting Sufjan Stevens release to date.| "The Avalanche" - The Billboard 2006 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Week | 01 | 02 |
| Position | |
|
| Sales | |
|
| Total | |
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Personnel
- Sufjan StevensSufjan StevensSufjan Stevens is an American singer-songwriter and musician born in Detroit, Michigan. Stevens first began releasing his music on Asthmatic Kitty, a label co-founded with his stepfather, beginning with the 1999 release, A Sun Came...
– acousticAcoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, WurlitzerWurlitzerThe Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to simply as Wurlitzer, was an American company that produced stringed instruments, woodwinds, brass instruments, theatre organs, band organs, orchestrions, electronic organs, electric pianos and jukeboxes....
, bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, oboeOboeThe oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
, altoAlto saxophoneThe alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
, fluteFluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, banjoBanjoIn the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, glockenspielGlockenspielA glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
, accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, vibraphoneVibraphoneThe vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....
, alto recorderRecorderThe recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
, CasiotoneCasiotoneCasiotone refers to a series of home electronic keyboards released by Casio Computer Co. in the early 1980s.These first keyboards used a sound synthesis technique known as Vowel-Consonant synthesis to approximate the sounds of other instruments...
MT-70, sleigh bells, shakerShaker (percussion)The word shaker describes a large number of percussive musical instruments used for creating rhythm in music.They are so called because the method of creating sound involves shaking them—moving them back and forth rather than striking them. Most may also be struck for a greater accent on certain...
, tambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
, triangleTriangle (instrument)The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel but sometimes other metals like beryllium copper, bent into a triangle shape. The instrument is usually held by a loop of some form of thread or wire at the top curve...
, electronicElectronic organAn electronic organ is an electronic keyboard instrument which was derived from the harmonium, pipe organ and theatre organ. Originally, it was designed to imitate the sound of pipe organs, theatre organs, band sounds, or orchestral sounds....
organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, arrangementArrangementThe American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...
, engineeringAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
, recording, productionRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, photography, art direction, artwork - Lowell Brams – artwork
- Alan Douches – masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
at West West Side Music, Tenafly, New JerseyTenafly, New JerseyTenafly is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 14,488. Tenafly is an affluent suburb of New York City.... - Brian Dulaney – artwork
- Stephen Halker – artwork
- Katrina Kerns – backing vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
on "The Avalance", "Dear Mr. Supercomputer", "Carlyle Lake", "Springfield", "The Mistress Witch from McClure", "No Man's Land", and "Chicago" (Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version) - James McAlister – drums, percussion, and drum engineering on "Dear Mr. Supercomputer", "The Henney Buggy Band", "Springfield", "Chicago" (Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version), "Inaugural Pop Music for Jane Margaret Bryne", "No Man's Land", and "Chicago" (Multiple Personality Disorder Version)
- Craig Montoro – trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
on "Dear Mr. Supercomputer", "The Henney Buggy Band", "The Mistress Witch from McClure", "Chicago" (Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version)", "No Man's Land", "Chicago" (Multiple Personality Disorder Version), and "Pittsfield"; backing vocals on "Chicago" (Multiple Personality Disorder Version) - Denny Renshaw – photography
- Divya Srinivasan – artwork
- Djohariah Stevens – artwork
- Marzuki StevensMarzuki StevensMarzuki Stevens is a professional long distance and marathon runner from Detroit, Michigan. Marzuki finished 5th among Americans at the Chicago Marathon on October 10, 2004, and 20th overall at the Boston Marathon, 2006. He qualified for the 2008 Olympic Trials.Marzuki Stevens is the brother of...
– artwork - Rosie ThomasRosie ThomasRosie Thomas is an American singer-songwriter, originally from Michigan. It was through mutual friends that she met Trey Many and began playing shows with Velour 100. They recorded one EP together and played a few short tours, where she met Damien Jurado and Pedro the Lion...
– backing vocals on "Adlai Stevenson", "Saul Bellow", "The Henny Buggy Band", "Chicago" (Acoustic Version), "The Mistress Witch from McClure", "No Man's Land", "The Pick-Up", "The Perpetual Self", "Chicago" (Multiple Personality Disorder Version), and "Pittsfield" - Shara WordenShara WordenShara Worden is the lead singer and songwriter for My Brightest Diamond. She was previously a backup vocalist for Sufjan Stevens and the frontwoman of Awry.-Life:...
– backing vocals on "The Avalanche", "Dear Mr. Supercomputer", "Carlyle Lake", and "Chicago" (Adult Contemporary Easy Listening Version)