Ed Hale and the Transcendence

Ed Hale's musical career isn't his full-time job. In addition to his other business enterprises, he's also very involved in activism and has appeared at the United Nations and made trips to Iran to promote his beliefs. And based on his latest album, he should focus more on his political views because that's where his head obviously is. All Your Heroes Become Villains endeavours to be something bigger than it is. A concept album of sorts, with its theme of disillusion and disappointment, it's apparent by the second track that it's going to fall flat. Part of that is down to the lyrics, which range from banal to inflammatory, but more irritating is the scattershot approach to the music. The most effective tracks are those that stick with a later-Bowie-meets-early-Radiohead template, but as soon as they throw in too much brass and strings or crank up the guitars, the busyness of it all overwhelms. This is a misguided mess of an album.