Van Hunt: Van Hunt : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

In 2004, Atlanta singer-guitarist Van Hunt released his neosoul debut, the droll, expansive Van Hunt, giving Alicia Keys a run for her money in the floppy-hat retro-fashion department, when he wasn't talking in interviews about how much he loved the Stooges. On the Jungle Floor is even more sprawling than its predecessor, with sixteen cuts that include a Hendrix-y rocker ("Ride, Ride, Ride"), some Prince-style pop funk ("Suspicion [She Knows Me Too Well]") and a slow, murky Stooges cover ("No Sense of Crime"). Hunt's bread-and-butter is soul songs that undercut lover-man tedium with a singer-songwriter's wandering eye: On "The Night Is Young," Hunt's come-ons take off from "the unmistakable feeling of youth slipping away," and on modestly grooving, falsetto-laced cuts like "Character," he tackles romantic disconnect with the same deep interest most other soulmen place in sex. On the Jungle Floor shows off Hunt's impressive range, but sometimes his ambition makes the songs run away from him. Hunt's clearly got an R&B White Album in him; can he do Rubber Soul?