You Hoping For? was released on September 27, 2011, by Hunt's independent record label Godless Hotspot in a joint venture with Nashville-based distributor Thirty Tigers. It was distributed by RED Distribution. Thirty Tigers reached out to Hunt during 2009 and offered their distribution and marketing services to him pending the album's completion. He subsequently assembled a marketing team and Godless Hotspot. What Were You Hoping For? was executive-produced by music manager and executive Randy Jackson, who originally helped Hunt get his first major-label record contract in 2003. The album's cover is a photograph taken by Hunt in North Hollywood that depicts an elderly woman looking askance at a collection of white garbage bags set against a concrete wall. The interior packaging of the album also features Hunt's photography, including a kaleidoscopic collage of photographed subjects in the fold-out CD booklet. In each of the months leading up to its release, Hunt promoted the album by releasing new songs as free downloads. They were made available through music websites, blogs, and his own website. The song "June" was released through The Huffington Post on June 15. Excluded from the album, it is a somber, jazz-styled track that contrasts the album's raw aesthetic, with upright bass and blue chord changes. Hunt explained the song to be "about a somber girl. I'm identifying with her somberness, but trying to make her smile ... [T]he June bloom has set in her and she's struggling with it." On July 7, Hunt released another non-album track, "The Savage, Sincere L of P", on Pastes website. It features a soulful rock style and lyrics about the pleasures of the flesh and "the savage, sincere look of pleasure". The album's lead single, "Eyes Like Pearls", was released on September 9 via Hunt's Facebook page. Hunt also promoted the album with a 20-date national headlining tour, his first national tour since 2008. It began on September 19 at Webster Hall in New York City and concluded on October 13 at Yoshi's in San Francisco. He performed with members of his session band, drummer Ruth Price and keyboardist Peter Dyer, as well as guitarist Douglas Showalter. Prior to the tour, they had played at the 21st NAACP Theatre Awards gala on August 29. Reception What You Were Hoping For? was met with rave reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional