Dark Night of the Soul is a studio album by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, featuring collaborations by numerous notable musicians. Its release was postponed due to a legal dispute with the album's distributor EMI. It was finally released in July 2010, about a year after it had been leaked to the Internet and Danger Mouse had released a blank CD-R as a way of working around the dispute. The album was commercially successful in the United Kingdom, and was well-received by music critics. Content The title of the album derives from La noche oscura del alma, the title given to a poem by 16th-century Spanish poet Juan de la Cruz John of the Cross. Dark Night of the Soul features a wide range of collaborators, including James Mercer of The Shins, Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Black Francis of the Pixies, Iggy Pop, Nina Persson of The Cardigans, Suzanne Vega, Vic Chesnutt, David Lynch, and Scott Spillane of Neutral Milk Hotel and The Gerbils; these singers also had a hand in composing and producing the work. Release Legal dispute with EMI The album was the subject of a legal dispute with the project's record label EMI. It was initially reported in early 2009 that there was a possibility that the album might never see release. However, the book was made available for sale on the official website of Dark Night of the Soul, bundled with a blank recordable CD-R. All copies were clearly labeled as follows: The audio portion of the album was widely leaked around the same time. Without going into detail, EMI acknowledged the legal dispute and released the following statement: Both parties of the dispute remained silent about the particulars, but it is believed that the problems with distribution centered on a record deal that Danger Mouse signed with Lex Records. In early 2010, it was announced that Dark Night of the Soul was slated for a tentative summer 2010 release, even though the CD-R version had been available since the previous May. A Lex Records logo appears next to the Capitol Records logo on the final version. Official release The full album was officially released July 12, 2010, in multiple formats. The album features a hand-numbered 100-plus-page book of photos taken by David Lynch, said to be a visual narrative