avalanche (thing)

As hamster bong mentions above, Avalanche is the name of the first solo album by Canadian musician Matthew Good. He turns the post-grunge style of the Matthew Good Band albums inside out to create a percussive, melodic album with a comparatively incidental guitar presence. Drums, synths, and strings build the album's fundamental texture, with both guitar and electric bass adding little details here and there. This is a varied album, and the contribution of the different elements is different from song to song.

1. Pledge of Allegiance (4:58)
   

   The album begins with muted guitar picking and a synth melody, with a laid-back, casual tone. Drive enters the song with drumming, a strong, toe-tapping beat that sits at the front of the mix. Everything fades to the back for the entrance of the vocals. Bells bridge vocal sections as subtle texture creeps into the music. The result sounds good, and comfortable in a way no MGB song ever was. The lyrics mainly make an ironic statement about politics and patriotism, but there is a double meaning to the title. Laced through the politics is a thread of a message to Matt's fans; he's "done letting you down". This latter message comes to the front in live performances where it is often the opening song. It ends with an extended fadeout.

2. Lullaby for the New World Order (3:52)
   

   In contrast with the opener, the second song centres on acoustic guitar and strings. One of the catchier songs on the album, it may also be the warmest. Electric guitars appear about halfway through, and share a clean, flowing instrumental break with the strings. The lyrics have wonderful scansion but their meaning is relatively unimportant. Very much establishes the tone of the first half of the album.

3. Weapon (5:52)
   

   Weapon was the first song to surface from the album and is perhaps one of the most 'intense' rock songs I've ever heard. The opening is quite peaceful, with the lyrical idee fixe 'Never turn your back on me' appearing quite quickly. These words form part of the focus of the song to great effect. About two minutes in, the heavy electric guitars crash in and the song takes off. The strings take over gradually, and then the guitars return in a crash. The final minute soars to a perfect finish.

4. In a World Called Catastrophe (5:57)
   

   Matt's lyrical pretension gets the better of him here, with one of the central lines being 'In a world called catastrophe, my native tongue is blasphemy, so that's the one I'll write.'. The music is less compelling than the first three songs, lacking either the comfort of Pledge of Allegiance, the warmth of Lullaby for the New World Order, or the intensity of Weapon.

5. Avalanche (7:26)
   

   A song whose structure seems obviously inspired by the titular event, starting very calm before very quickly building to a full, insistent chorus. Slowly, things weave around and change, with several climaxes along the way, including a rather extended section involving twisted voice samples. Eventually normalcy returns to the world, with a brief reprise of the opening.

6. 21st Century Living (3:10)
   

   The true black sheep of the album, this song could fit on a Matthew Good Band album. Short and punchy, the heavy, sung chorus alternates with a rant on consumerism and ambition. The chorus is easily the heaviest thing on the album. As a sidenote, when I saw Matthew Good live in late March 2003, the rant from the record was replaced with one on the recently-begun Iraq war. It is likely that similar topical rants replace the one on the record during live performances. The song ends suddenly and...

7. While We Were Hunting Rabbits (8:00)
   

   the next song fades in like reality after a particularly vivid dream. Utterly contrasting with the previous song, this song is slow, relaxed, and percussive. Possibly the most central riff of the song is played on tympani. Much of the song is taken up by a long, meandering fade, eventually disappearing to nothing in much the way it came, only slower. It very much has the feel of the end of a side on a vinyl LP.

8. Bright End of Nowhere (4:08)
   

   This song provides a mellow opening to the second half of the album with its slow, dreamy guitar lines and relaxed beats. As the song progresses, it increases in intensity a bit, but it does not 'take off' the way it sounds it might.

9. Near Fantastica (8:00)
   

   One of the more electronic songs on the album, it is an expansive, driving piece. The lyrics are paranoid and starkly imagistic, typified in the line "Born of the sea, blink, the sea is dead." The pretension that torpedoed In A World Called Catastrophe is here a bit more restrained and very effective. A little over halfway through the song, the mantra 'Can't fear fear, fear's the mind-killer' enters, a clear nod to the novel Dune, which is somewhat fitting to the song's theme. Like several of the other songs on this album, it has an extended coda which bridges to the next song. The single version of this song was quite heavily edited for length.

10. Song for the Girl (3:16)
    

    As 21st Century Living is the traditionalist rocker on the album, this is the traditionalist ballad. The general tone of the album ensures that this fits in better than 21st Century Living. It is more uptempo than the usual ballad, but then so were the Matthew Good Band's ballads.

11. Double Life (4:22)
    

    Continuing in the more reflective feel of the second half of the album, this song considers the problem of identity while considering someone who 'lives a double life'. The music is an uptempo, textured rock song with a true guitar solo in the second half that uses somewhat exceptional amounts of distortion.

12. A Long Way Down (3:56)
    

    The true high point of the second half of the album, this song returns to the prominent drums and strings, and adds a piano to the mix to great effect. The lyrics are serviceable and fitting, although they are not the true focus of the song. A passage with droning synths appears in the middle of the song, but other than that the music feels very acoustic, if not in a traditional 'acoustic rock' way.

13. House of Smoke and Mirrors (6:03)
    

    Like When We Were Hunting Rabbits before it, this song brings things to a close with a slow, quiet song. Unlike the previous song's false ending, though, this song is the true end of the album. More than the other songs, this song is about the vocals, which rise far above the rest of the mix in the first two minutes and continue to dominate in the rest of the song in a way they really didn't in the rest of the album. In the same way as the album did not begin with a bang, neither does it end with a bang.

Overall, the result is an album which has a dramatically different sound than Matthew Good's earlier work with his eponymous band, and most everything else I've heard as well. It is greater than the sum of its parts, the best album Matthew Good has ever recorded, and has only Radiohead's Hail to the Thief as competition for my favourite album of the year.