Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Since Monday morning, Lee DeWyze has been tweeting about great news he was going to announce today.

The news: He’s signed with Vanguard Records and expects to have an album and single out soon.

“I’ve never felt better about being in a place than I am right now,” he said in a video message to fans. “We plan on releasing an album and a single very early this year. I don’t think I could have asked for anything better. This is a huge step and huge leap forward.”

Lee fans will no doubt be delighted because it will mark his first substantial music release since his post-Idol debut in November 2010.

Lee did release a single (“Fight”) last July to benefit the American Heart Association. And WiLu Records released an album of pre-Idol material from Lee last February called “What Once Was.”

At the time, Lee said he hoped to have an album of new material out late in 2012 or 2013 and that he couldn’t wait for fans to hear “what it sounds like when folk, rock, pop and country make love.”

He’ll likely be hoping the new album does better than 2010’s “Live It Up,”  which turned out to be  the worst-performing debut from a show winner.

The album debuted at number 19 on the Billboard 200,  dropped to 93 the following week and failed to go gold (500,000 copies). He and his label parted ways shortly thereafter.

For comparison purposes, Phillip Phillips’ “The World from the Other Side of the Moon” landed at number four on the Billboard 200 and is still there seven weeks later. And Season 10 winner Scotty McCreery’s “Clear As Day” debuted at the top of the Billboard 200 and went platinum.

In his video, Lee predicted fans “will be pretty pleasantly surprised when you hear this album.”

“They’re the right fit and the right place for me to be,” he said of Vanguard.

Head here to watch his video message.