Comfortable With Lust

I went to bed uneasy last night. Uneasy is a lax term for the way I felt. See, one of my favorite artists had released a short and sexy selection of new music. And I hadn't the heart to download it, nor the money to buy it from iTunes.

The Popular Machine is Van Hunt's latest EP, previewing the album of the same name, to be released in January of 2008. Judging from the two new songs, The Lowest 1 Of My Desires and Turn My TV On, Hunt is sinking cozier into the often talked about area of lust. However, the difference between him, and say R.Kelly's animal sex or J. Holiday's bedtime banter is a loss of control. Hunt seems to be fully aware of how women make him feel.

Dayton native Van Hunt, is constantly dodging comparisions to Prince, some to Rick James. While it's true that his combination of funky instrumentation and lavicous lyrics call to mind those funk forefathers, there is a clear difference between Rick James' lusts and Van Hunt's desires.

Van Hunt is no pimp. He doesn't brag about the things he could do to a woman. However, in his songs, he describes most vividly and poignantly the way women make him feel. Some women, as described in The Lowest 1 Of My Desires, make him want to fuck. Point blank. But this declaration isn't offensive. He never says that an overtly sexual woman entrances him into making want to have sex with her. No drunk freaks or hoeish activities seem to be going on.

Van Hunt has always been comfortable with his descriptions of lust. Men lust for women. And many times, the women aren't doing anything but expressing who they are. Women don't want to feel like they have to be slithering video vixens in order to peak a man's interest. Sometimes it is just a woman walking across a room. In Being A Girl, it's a chick with a winter coat and cigarettes. In Down Here In Hell With You, it's a chick who he argues with. Van Hunt almost seems turned off with the sexually aggresive chicks. On Hot Stage Lights, the girl who turns all her attention towards him, is charged with doing too much. He seems to mock his groupies on If I Take You Home.

Through his music, Van Hunt seems to want the woman who is not trying. Who just is. And without oversinging and over-emoting, he describes those feelings. And sometimes, he just wants to fuck. But even in fucking, he is giving it his artistic attention.

I couldn't download The Popular Machine last night. See, not only do I appreciate the Ohio in Van Hunt...but I appreciate his willingness to express how femininity affects men; unmushy and honestly.