Artist: West Coast Consortium
Title: All The Love In The World ( Complete Recordings 1964-1972)
Year Of Release: 2024
Country: UK
Label: Grapefruit Records
Genre: British Psychedelia, Psychedelic Pop, British Invasion, Psychedelic/Garage, Baroque Pop, AM Pop, Sunshine Pop, Bubblegum
Audio codec: WAV | lossless

Tracklist:
CD 1:
1. Some Other Someday
2. Looking Back
3. Indigo Spring
4. Listen To The Man
5. Colour Sergeant Lillywhite
6. Lady From Baltimore
7. All The Love In The World
8. Spending My Life Saying Goodbye
9. When The Day Breaks
10. The Day The Train Never Came
11. Beggar Man
12. Cynthia Serenity
13. I Don't Want Her Any More
14. The House Upon The Hill
15. Melanie Cries Alone
16. Copper Coloured Years
17. Annabella (Aka Annabella Umbrella)
18. Tell Me, My Friend
19. Sunday In The Park
20. To Please Louise (Tony Macaulay Production Version)
21. We All Love You Baby
22. Ginny Stop (Don't Go 'Way) (Alternative Version)
23. Never Look Back
24. Time Will Tell On You
1-2 Single, Pye 7N 17352, released July 1967
3-4 Single, Pye 7N 17370, released September 1967 as Robbie
5-6 Single, Pye 7N 17482, released March 1968
7-8 Single, Pye 7N 17635, released January 1969 as Consortium
9-10 Single, Pye 7N 17725, released May 1969 as Consortium
11-12 Single, Pye 7N 17797, released July 1969 as Consortium
13-14 Single, Pye 7N 17841, released November 1969 as Consortium
15-16 Single, Trend TNT 52, released January 1970 as Consortium
17-18 Single, Trend 6099 004, released March 1971 as Consortium
19 Portuguese-only single, Trend 6099011, released 1972 as Consortium
20-23 Acetates, recorded 1967
24 Acetate, recorded 1964 as Group 66
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CD 2:
1. All The Love In The World (Demo Version)
2. Willow Wood
3. When The Day Breaks (Demo Version)
4. Cynthia Serenity (Demo Version)
5. Spending My Life Saying Goodbye (Demo Version)
6. Ginny Stop (Don't Go 'Way)
7. The Elastic Band
8. Copper Coloured Years (Demo Version)
9. Oh! What A Feeling
10. To Please Louise
11. Lady From Baltimore (Demo Version)
12. Rest Of Your Life (Down Lonely Street)
13. One Six Two
14. One Day The Train Never Came (Demo Version)
15. Soldiers In The Rain
16. This Poor Man
17. Live And Let Live
18. Amanda Jane
19. House On A Hill (Demo Version)
20. Once Upon A Time
21. What Are They All Singing About Today?
22. Can't Wait To Wait For The Evening
23. I Don't Want Her Anymore (Demo Version)
24. I’ll Always Love You
25. Scarlet River
26. Cindy In Love
1-13. Demo album acetate, recorded early 1968
14-26 Demo album acetate, recorded late 1968
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CD 3:
1. The Fire Fighter
2. Gone From Me
3. Crime Detector Hector
4. Windmill Hill
5. Money Matters
6. Rings And Things
7. Fairground Playboy
8. All Night Dancing
9. Mr. Umbrella Man
10. Holding On
11. Santa Monica Bay
12. In Search Of Fair Weather
13. Whatever Became Of Emily Jane?
14. Leave Your Homework Till Sunday
15. Here Comes Lorraine
16. Homewrd Bound The Sailor (Growing Old)
17. Madeline
18. A Walk In The Park
19. Come On Into The Warm
20. Save Me
21. Take A Round Trip
22. Too Close For Comfort
23. Sweeter Than Ever
24. Bye Bye Birdie
25. Aimie (Sing Your Song For Me)
26. Philadelphia
1-26. Demo album acetate (2-LP), recorded 1969

Members were:
Robbie Fair (lead vocals)
Geoff Simpson (lead guitar, organ, mellotron, vocals)
Brian Bronson (rhythm guitar, vocals)
John Barker (bass, trombone, vocals)
John Podbury (drums)

Whether they traded under the name West Coast Consortium or just Consortium, the British group were responsible for some of the finest light psychedelic pop of the late '60s. They magically combined Beach Boys/Four Seasons-style vocal harmonies with lush, string-filled backing to create a sound that was as smooth as paisley velvet and also criminally overlooked. Apart from one medium-sized hit, 1969's "All the Love in the World," the band's singles weren't hits and they never managed to release an album. Not officially anyway. While they were struggling to hit the charts, they were simultaneously making home demos that stripped away the ornate glow of their singles and replaced it with an intimate, rough-hewn, and fascinating take on psychedelic pop. Their work has been collected before, but Grapefruit's 2024 release All the Love in the World: Collected Recordings 1964-1972 not only has all their singles on one disc, it has all three of the demo albums they recorded in 1968 and 1969. The singles are a high-level course in MOR psych, built around the group's slick harmonies, with arrangements chock-full of strings, keyboards, and polish, and featuring songs that were pitched somewhere between the merrily twee approach of the Ivy League and the rambling glee of the Move. Consortium prove to be pleasing balladeers on tracks like "All the Love," but they also get pretty weird on the phased psych nugget "Colour Sergeant Lillywhite" and delve into bubblegum sweetness on later songs, especially the insistent "Cynthia Serenity." All A+ work that when stretched end to end rates right near the top of what was coming out of the U.K. during the era.

As good as what they were doing on their records was, the band's behind-the-scenes work is arguably even more interesting. The songs from both sets of demos taped in 1968 trade out the orchestras for Mellotron and the overstuffed arrangements for something less bombastic while showcasing their wonderful mix of voices. The demos feature some of the songs that were released on singles -- a take on "All the Love in the World" with Mellotron taking the lead is quite beautiful -- but they also hold a treasure trove of oddball psych and toytown ballads that the band could have dipped into to make a pretty great album. The double album's worth of demos the group put on tape in 1969 are much peppier than the songs they were issuing at the time, coming across like bubbly soda pop instead of champagne. The tracks are short and hooky, with twanging guitars and bouncy rhythms leading the way and the results coming close to bubblegum at times, but they mostly sound unlike anything else going on in 1969 (especially when they add accordion to the mix to sub for strings). Maybe that's why none of the songs ended up being released on their official singles, though they certainly could have been. It's unlikely that tunes as breezy as "Mr. Umbrella Man" or as giddy as "Rings and Things" would have been hits in such a serious time, but they didn't deserve to be buried either.

Most of the songs from these albums hadn't seen the light of day until the release of this compilation, to which one can only say better late than never. They provide an always entertaining, sometimes brilliant counterpoint to what was already a (short) career's worth of excellent songs. Psychedelic pop doesn't get much better than West Coast Consortium, and All the Love in the World is a vital release that all fans of the style need to hear