Van Hunt Now Label-less, Blogging

noah | January 31, 2008 3:20 am
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Last April, former Idolator editor Brian Raftery wondered if soul singer Van Hunt was still signed to a major, and whether or not his third album, Popular, would see the light of day. Today, Greg Kot at the Chicago Tribune sheds some light on the first mystery, at least, passing along the MySpace-blogged news that the singer and his label, the EMI subsidiary Blue Note, “are not seeing each other anymore”:

today was to be a day of celebration. it still can be; but, not for the same reason. i would once turn red from such an electrical surge as having a record on the way to the stores, $3,000,000 behind me in marketing and tour support and the president of the record label, and the manager of my career, making frantic phone calls on my behalf-trying to get me on the letterman show. “what will people think about the record?” talking to myself became casual parlance on the eve of record releases. not to mention preparing a new band for the album release party. an event where the “stars” of hollywood would line up against the south wall of the Roxy on sunset to get in and watch me sweat while they attempted to talk louder than our amplifiers could turn up.

but, not this time.

‘Popular’ is not on its way to the store. it is sitting in a box in my flat in LA, on 1/2 inch reels down in the blue note basement in new york and on about 30 laptops across this country and england – fans who spent anywhere from $30 to $70 to hear what i was thinking 15 months ago.

you never know how much you mean to somebody until they break up with you. blue note and i are not seeing each other anymore. i am planning. i won’t go into more than these details until after we work out the business of our parting. but, this year you will see, at least, one album and a book of short stories from me. i can not promise you that you will ever see the official release of ‘Popular.’ at this point i’m just hoping for MY release :)

According to Kot, review copies of Popular had already been sent out to writers; a few songs from an EP previewing the album are actually streaming from Van Hunt’s MySpace page now, and you can allegedly buy said EP via the page’s Snocap store. (Also, the one-sheet for the album seems to be taking up the singer’s “Bio” section right now.) “Turn My TV On” is a brisk little piece of sax-tinged funk that makes me want to hear more–and it makes me sad to think that copies of the album that have already been pressed might have the unfortunate fate of being “donated” to China’s highway department.

Popular(ity) contest [Van Hunt’s MySpace Blog]