Danger Mouse and EMI Settle "Dark Night of the Soul" Dispute

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Nearly nine months after Danger Mouse's Dark Night of the Soul project hit stores with a blank CD, the producer and EMI have reached an agreement to formally issue the album with music on the compact disc, the BBC reports. As Rolling Stone wrote last May, a legal hassle between Danger Mouse, or Brian Burton, and EMI stemming back to The Grey Album — Danger Mouse's mash-up of the Beatles' White Album with Jay-Z's Black Album — held up the release of Dark Night, a collaboration featuring the Shins' James Mercer, David Lynch, Julian Casablancas, Frank Black and more artists.

Because Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous was signed to EMI and featured prominently on Dark Night of the Soul, EMI threatened to sue if the album was released. Danger Mouse combated the threat by including a blank CD, hinting that fans should download and burn the leaked version of the album. However, Danger Mouse now tells the BBC, "The problems of last year are last year, so hopefully it will be out soon in June or something like that." EMI also said that their issues with the producer had been resolved and that they were looking forward to working with him again. Danger Mouse previously produced Gorillaz's Demon Days, released through EMI, and had no problems then with the label.

Broken Bells, Brian Burton's latest project with the Shins' James Mercer, will release their self-titled debut album next week. The pair, who are featured in the new issue of Rolling Stone, first joined forces on the Dark Night of the Soul album.

Related Stories:
• Danger Mouse's Dark Night Of the Soul Album Threatened By Lawsuit
• Behind Danger Mouse's "Dark Night of the Soul" With Linkous and Lynch

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Song Stories

“He Will Break Your Heart”

Jerry Butler | 1960

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."

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