Van Hunt - What Were You Hoping For? Review

Finally free of the label system, Van Hunt releases his first LP with complete creative control. Ladies and gentlemen THIS is how you move the boundaries of music without losing a groove.

Van Hunt - What Were You Hoping For? (2011) – 9.3 / 10.0

Release Date: Sept. 27, 2011
Running Time: 43:34
Label: Godless Hotspot
Producer: Van Hunt
Genre: I have no idea....Neo-Soul-Funk-Rock-Electro-Bluesopadopolis?
Drug of Choice: Everything and then more marijuana
Key Tracks:
"Designer Jeans"
"Eyes Like Pearls"
"It's A Mysterious Hustle"

After two records with the label, Capitol Records inexplicably moved Van Hunt over to Blue Note records. Apparently, the company must have considered Hunt a niche artist. Regardless of their intention, the move resulted in a battle between Blue Note and Hunt, resulting in a completed record, Popular, never officially seeing the light of day. With What Were You Hoping For?, Van Hunt is getting his first chance to take full controls over his music, and the payoff is splendid. I have found myself writing a lot recently about the inability of independent musicians to edit themselves very well or fully complete concepts before rushing them out to the public. With this record, Van Hunt is going to stand as a shining example of how you can control the entire process yourself, but still release fully-realized music. Now there is no excuse for anyone else.

Describing the music here is virtually impossible. What Were You Hoping For? has a close cousin in Janelle Monae's The ArchAndroid, with notable exceptions in Hunt's heavier reliance on Rock music and lack of Monae's love for Disney theme songs. Hunt doesn't entirely escape the traditional R&B 'I'm gonna screw you girl' song content, but his approach is incredibly fresh and those theme never seem as tedious as they do with other, less-talented artists. This album plays like an R&B version of Stankonia in scope, but delivers more interesting stories. Just doing something simple like talking about his neighborhood on "North Hollywood" is engaging and hilarious. Hunt borders on playing Hardcore Punk with "Watching You Go Crazy Is Driving Me Insane". He breaks out his more traditional ballad abilities on "Moving Targets" and gives more than a few head nods to classic funk on tracks like "Cross Dresser". What I find strongest about this record, however, are Hunt's furthest out moments. "Designer Jeans" sounds like a mash up of TV on the Radio and Mike Patton or Andre3000 on steroids. "Eyes Like Pearls" could fit perfectly as a Prince cover from Tortoise. It is on this track that I'm absolutely sure we are hearing something new in Van Hunt. This is the world we would have eventually gotten from Shuggie Otis.

Not only is Van Hunt's What Were You Hoping For? the best record of his career, this is one of the best records of the year. I have to think that this will be ranking just as highly on those dreaded end of year lists as Janelle Monae did last year. In my opinion, this is a better record. Hunt is all things at once on this record; silly, thoughtful, angry, creative, idiosyncratic, nonsensical, political, tender, carefree and groovy. Above all else, you get this sense that this is a full work. Perhaps that is what I am most thankful for.


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Reviewer Stats:
Reviews - 44
Average Rating - 6.8
Highest Rating - 9.5 Blitzen Trapper's American Goldwing
Lowest Rating - 3.5 Ryan Adams' Ashes & Fire