Avalanche (Matthew Good album)

For the Sufjan Stevens album, see The Avalanche.

Untitled

Avalanche is the first solo album by Canadian artist Matthew Good since Raygun. Released in 2003, the album marked a creative departure from his earlier work with the Matthew Good Band, and featured accompaniment by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra on several tracks.

The album had three singles: "Weapon", "In a World Called Castastrophe" and "Near Fantastica", although "Near Fantastica" was released only to radio in a substantially shorter edit. The music video for "Weapon" won a Juno Award, which was shared between Good and co-director Ante Kovac (Good refused to accept the award, however, as he boycotts the Juno Awards).

Producer Warne Livesey, who previously worked with Good on the massively successful Beautiful Midnight, received a Juno Award nomination for his work on Avalanche.

An excerpt of "Weapon" was used as the opening credits theme music for CTV's series The Eleventh Hour.

Reception

The album received high praise from both music critics and fans of Good alike. The album debuted at #2 on the Canadian Albums Chart and was certified Gold on May 08, 2003.

Track listing

1. "Pledge of Allegiance" – 4:59
2. "Lullaby for the New World Order" – 3:52
3. "Weapon" – 5:58
4. "In a World Called Catastrophe" – 5:57
5. "Avalanche" – 7:26
6. "21^st Century Living" – 3:10
7. "While We Were Hunting Rabbits" – 8:00
8. "Bright End of Nowhere" – 4:08
9. "Near Fantastica" – 8:00
10. "Song for the Girl" – 3:16
11. "Double Life" – 4:22
12. "A Long Way Down" – 3:56
13. "House of Smoke and Mirrors" – 6:03

Miscellanea

• "Avalanche" contains a short audio sample from the film There's Only One Jimmy Grimble. What is spoken is "Every pass goes adrift, every ball loose, can't tackle, can't shoot".

• "Near Fantastica" is perhaps the oldest songs from Avalanche. Written in 1996, "Near Fantastica" was originally stated by Good to have been musically similar to "Suburbia" (from Beautiful Midnight) and vocally similar to "Every Name Is My Name" (from Last of the Ghetto Astronauts) On Avalanche the lyrics were altered slightly from those which were posted online by Good in 1999. The music, too, was changed to incorporate aspects of another song "Villain of the Year", which Good had become disenchanted with during the recording of Avalanche. The original version, which is a mere 4:23, was dubbed the 'radio edit' of the song and released as the record's third single. The 8-minute version which appears on the album was altered from the original version during the mixing of Avalanche as he preferred it to the "simple verse, chorus, structure of the original."

• "A Long Way Down" was one of the last songs written for Avalanche. The song is based around a drum track that was taken from another song, "Comfortable Criminals", which was later cut from the album and released as a b-side.

• The CD contains multimedia content, though the website accessed by the applet is no longer active. However, there is an "easter egg" hiding on the opening screen. Clicking just to the right of the main mountain peak brings up a picture of a raccoon standing on its hind legs.

• Known b-sides for Avalanche include "Annabelle", "Comfortable Criminals", "Villain of the Year", and an acoustic version of "Near Fantastica". While the original version of "Annabelle" has never been released, it would be stripped of its musical elements, spliced with snippets of radio news broadcasts, and sold digitally in support of Amnesty International. "Comfortable Criminals" was made available on the secret website accessed using the multimedia component of the Avalanche CD. "Villain of the Year" has never been released, but Good has stated that the music for that song became the music for "Near Fantastica" and the lyrics would be used for an extended version of "Symbolistic White Walls" in subsequent live performances. The acoustic version of "Near Fantastica", which included a new introductory verse, was released to members of a now defunct fansite known as 'The Metro' and is now widely circulated on various file-sharing networks.

Personnel

• Matthew Good - vocals, guitar, art direction
• Christian Thor Valdson - Guitar,
• Pat Steward - drums, percussion
• Rich Priske - Bass guitar