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.