''Avalanche'' is the fifth album by the English singer-songwriter

Thea Gilmore Thea Eve Gilmore (born 25 November 1979), also known as Afterlight, is an English singer-songwriter. She has released more than twenty albums since her 1998 debut '' Burning Dorothy''. She has had three Top 40 entries on the UK Albums Chart and ...

. It was released on 9 September 2003 on the Hungry Dog record label. The album peaked at number 63 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

. ''

Uncut Uncut may refer to: * ''Uncut'' (film), a 1997 Canadian docudrama film by John Greyson about censorship * ''Uncut'' (magazine), a monthly British magazine with a focus on music, which began publishing in May 1997 * '' BET: Uncut'', a Black Enter ...

'' magazine ranked ''Avalanche'' at number 59 of its "Albums of the Year" for 2003 and said of Gilmore: "You can here her growing in stature with every record she makes."

Track listing

All songs written by

, except where noted. #"Rags and Bones" – 3:38 #"Have You Heard" – 3:26 #"Juliet (Keep That in Mind)" – 3:52 #"Avalanche" – 4:21 #"Mainstream" (Gilmore,

Nigel Stonier Nigel Stonier (born 10 December 1956) is an English rock, Folk music, roots and pop record producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Biography He was born in Cheshire, but first relocated to London when, at the age of 17 he secured a pub ...

) – 3:12 #"Pirate Moon" – 4:20 #"Apparition #13" – 3:27 #"Razor Valentine" – 3:46 #"God Knows" – 3:49 #"Heads Will Roll" – 2:33 #"Eight Months" – 5:33 #"The Cracks" – 4:49

Reception

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'' considered the album to be Gilmore taking "the final step to the forefront of British singer-songwriters, with 12 songs that establish her as the most prolific and intelligent wordsmith of her generation".

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

's Hal Horowitz gave it four stars, stating the album saw her "moving a bit closer to the mainstream", also calling the songs "some of her best". Adam Sweeting, for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', also gave it four stars, writing that it saw her "blazing her own path towards classic status as a songwriter". '' Billboards Steve Adams called it "an astonishingly literate collection of songs that marks another career leap".Adams, Steve (2003)
Swept Away by Gilmore's 'Avalanche'
, '' Billboard'', 2 August 2003, p. 51. Retrieved 17 January 2018 via Google Books

Personnel

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

, acoustic guitar,

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in ...

melodica The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usua ...

saw A saw is a tool consisting of a tough blade, wire, or chain with a hard toothed edge. It is used to cut through material, very often wood, though sometimes metal or stone. The cut is made by placing the toothed edge against the material and mov ...

– producer, programming, electric guitar, acoustic guitar,

gut string guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor ...

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

, keyboards, Moog,

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are ...

Robbie McIntosh Robbie McIntosh (born 25 October 1957) is an English guitarist. McIntosh is well known as a session guitarist and member of The Pretenders from 1982 until 1987. In 1988 he began doing session guitar work for Paul McCartney joining his band fu ...

– electric guitar,

National guitar The National String Instrument Corporation was an American guitar company first formed to manufacture banjos and then the original resonator guitars. National also produced resonator ukuleles and resonator mandolins. The company merged with Dobr ...

, backing vocals * Paul Beavis – drums,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

* Jo Wadeson – bass guitar * Dave "Munch" Moore – Hammond organ *

Mike Cave Mike Cave (born Michael Cave on 1 January 1978) is a musician, record producer and mix engineer, whose clients have included The Noisettes, Professor Green, Tinchy Stryder, Elvis Costello, The Charlatans and The Coral. Early life Cave was bor ...

– drums, programming, cymbal * Dylan Gallagher – programming * Dave Hull-Denholm – backing vocals * Freyja Gilmore – backing vocals * Oliver Kraus –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

* Ewan Davies – musical box

References

External links

Gilmore's official website2004 ''CD Times'' interview
{{Authority control 2003 albums Thea Gilmore albums