The fourth studio album by itinerant project Ed Hale And The Transcendence brings together new contributors and a collection of songs intertwining the talents and influences gathered together. The album opener offers uplifting soul vocals accompanied by a blissful piano and trumpet melody which ebbs and flows during the eleven tracks. Intermittent phrases of dialogue, another recurring motif carried throughout, consolidate a cinematic feel of the LP as the prelude segues into the next.
‘Here It Comes’ is the track infused most with the spirit of Britpop; the anthemic instrumentation, the rousing chorus and the soaring strings all present and correct. Hallmark elements of the Britpop sound also surface in ‘Solaris’, where Hale’s vocals, carried along by jaunty acoustic guitar chords, echo Bono and Alex Kapranos in parts; ‘After Tomorrow’, seven minutes in length, apes the likes of the mellow vibes and extended outro of ‘Champagne Supernova’ and the close backing harmonies of ‘Hey Jude’.
ED HALE JUMPS TO #33 ON THE ADULT CONTEMPORARY TOP40 CHART THIS WEEK
“New Orleans Dreams” — the latest single from Transcendence singer Ed Hale — added an additional 100 spins on Adult Contemporary radio stations across the US last week and picked up 3 more stations, pushing the song up to the #33 spot on the FMQB Top40 Chart! The song is in its sixth week since being released and there seems to be no stopping the politically themed acoustic ballad.
The event is certainly one to celebrate for fans, as this is the first entry into the slightly tamer Adult Contemporary radio format for Hale or his bandmates in the group Transcendence. “We are absolutely ecstatic around here about this,” exclaimed Hale. “Everyone at the radio stations has been so cool to us and the new fans that we’re connecting with on Facebook and Twitter are awesome. It’s been an incredible couple of weeks and we just feel very very grateful…”
The song “New Orleans Dreams” is available for download in both a shorter “radio edit” version and as the full length album version on iTunes (US), iTunes (UK) and Amazon.com as well as numerous other online music etailers. Fans new to the singer can connect, learn more about the artist and hear more songs via Facebook or Twitter. And for those interested in the long running indie-rock collective featuring Hale, Dreaming In Stereo‘s Fernando Perdomo, and Ex Norwegian frontman Roger Houdaille, Ed Hale and The Transcendence, listeners can head to the bands website transcendence.com or Facebook Page.
ED HALE ENTERS RADIO FORMAT #3 WITH A “TASTE OF TRIPLE A” FEATURE
Ed Hale’s first solo album in years, Ballad On Third Avenue, has charted a lot of territory for the transcendent singer/guitarist in the last year. Upon its release the album went first to college radio and spent several months on the CMJ Top 200, a radio format very familiar with both Hale and the indie-rock collective he sings and plays guitar in, Transcendence. Being a softer acoustic endeavor, the album’s second single “New Orleans Dreams” then went to the Adult Contemporary format, where it’s enjoying spins on 200+ stations and still rising up the Top40 chart (currently #33). In October the album will begin spinning on Triple A radio stations across the country. “New Orleans Dreams” is the third track on the October 2011 edition of A Taste of Triple A compilation CD, a long running tastemaker series of “all things Triple A radio” founded by revered radio veteran Jim Nelson. The CD also features tracks by the B-552s, Indigo Girls, and Oasis’s Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
The plot thickens as the release date for the new Ed Hale and The Transcendence album, All Your Heroes Become Villains, approaches (Nov. 15th). The “Villains” album is set to hit College Radio on October 25th, and Alt-Rock Specialty Show stations on December 1st, both formats the band has charted in numerous times over the years. In the second week of January 2012 the band will release two singles simultaneously to two additional radio formats, the dark and heavy rocker “Blind Eye” to Modern Rock, and the lushly arranged pop ballad “Solaris” will begin spinning on Adult Contemporary radio stations. Of course there is a chance that Triple A stations may get in on the action and pick up on “Solaris” as well. One thing is for certain: there will be no shortage of Hale or his fellow bandmates in Transcendence on the radio over the next six months.