Avalanche

"Avalanche" is the first song off of Act II of The Smashing Pumpkins' 2023 rock opera, ATUM. The child's voice at the beginning is Billy Corgan's daughter, Philomena Clementine, saying "I hope someday we'll find out what happiness means," followed by a computerized voice repeating the line. It is the first time she's appeared on a studio recording. Corgan said he didn't want his daughter to later in life feel jealous that her brother, Augustus Juppiter, appeared on a studio recording ("Wyttch" from CYR) when she did not.

Corgan described the songwriting process for "Avalanche" to be very frustrating. Unlike most of his songs, "Avalanche" features a triple chorus that descends rather than leading to an crescendo. This made him unsure of the song's potential, and he ultimately rewrote it roughly five times before engineer Howard Willing convinced him that it should be kept.

Synopsis
By this time, Osirah and Nighthawk have left the Dream Dream amusement park with Ruby the robot and are in a field of sunflowers. They're preparing to do a live broadcast of whatever message from Shiny is stored on the hard drive that's plugged into Ruby, hoping it will eventually go viral. As dawn breaks, Nighthawk is setting up the background for the live stream, as Osirah stares out over the field of sunflowers singing "Avalanche." Ruby (who is now in part Shiny's consciousness) notices Osirah and joins in on the song as a duet, singing of their "mutual circumstance." For the first time, Osirah feels an emotional connection to Shiny, only it is through Ruby the robot.