Sufjan Stevens - The Avalanche

Hyperactivity is a funny thing. Sometimes it gets to the point you feel trapped in your own skin, no outlet for this unexplainable source of energy. All my life it's something I've "fought", mostly with any ADHD med known to man, but it's still there. I guess that's why I love music, and in this case Sufjan Stevens. With his new album The Avalanche everything that makes him the artist fans adore is still there. Being an album of "outtakes and extras" from a universally acclaimed work like Illinoise brings a certain stigma. That is, unless it's the first Sufjan Stevens' album someone is listening to, the listener will immediately compare it to Illinoise. That's what I did, and whether out of eternal reverence for my first Sufjan Stevens' album or not, The Avalanche does fall short. However, that will probably be the only case in which it does so. Just from the cover of The Avalanche anyone can see Sufjan's modesty about this project (note the "shamelessly compiled by Sufjan Stevens" and how it was named for the truck on the cover, an appropriate sign of excess). What some still don't know is that originally Illinoise was planned as a 2-disc album, but was scratched late in the process in favor of time and the realization that it was perhaps too ambitious. Logically, The Avalanche is similar in style to its predecessor, but that in no way is a negative. In The Avalanche, everything is there from before that would matter to a Sufjan fan, and stick out to a first time listener. His voice? Like always, as soothing and thoughtful as a man's can be, turning his narratives into more than just stories, and more than just songs. The instrumentals? Working together with his voice, the banjo, trumpet, and others bring the songs to their triumphant, invigorating climaxes of which Jenna Jameson would be jealous. Also, and a major part of Sufjan's appeal, he plays the role of storyteller, weaving narratives about places even Illinois residents haven't heard of into pieces of music that connect with the listener on a base, emotional level. Then again that's what he's always done that's made him unique. He takes obscure newsclippings, or events more than a century old and evokes the listener to hang on every word, as if through listening to him tell tales of others, you can somehow grow to understand yourself even better. While this album may not be the essential work that Illinois is, any fan would be remiss in passing up on The Avalanche, an album that seems to harness the full range of human emotion to enthrall, energize, and calm its listener all from a set of speakers. Album Stand-Outs: "Pittsfield," "The Henney Buggy Band," "Saul Bellow" [www.asthmatickitty.com]