The Fraternal Order Of The All — Greetings From Planet Love
The Fraternal Order Of The All is the psych rock/ psych pop project of American pop/ soft rock singer-songwriter Andrew Gold. And Greetings From Planet Love is its one and only album to date- it’s a twenty-track affair, which both pays tributes to/ lightly sends up the 1960s/ early 70’s sonic psychedelia - in a largely entertaining & rewarding manner. The album was first released back in 1997- here’s a new plush CD reissue on Esoteric Records- which is part of the Cherry Red family of labels.
The CD reissue is presented in a glossy four-panel digipak. On its front cover, we find the da-da cartoon-like send-up of Sergent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band cover. With inside a black and white picture of bearded Mr Gold dressed up in a Sergent Peppers uniform jacket. Also featured is a twenty-page booklet- this details the fake history of The Fraternal Order Of The All- with the made-up five-piece band of Colin Allcars, Gene Pool, Jimmy Delocke, Kid Willy(?!), and Ed Twiddle. As well as full lyrics and real credits- basically Gold was playing, singing, and arranging the whole thing.
As an album Greetings From Planet Love- treads the thin line between tribute/ parody – embracing both the sound of the key bands of the psychedelic era, as well as the playful/ wonky side of the period too. The album features twenty tracks in all- with these moving between fully formed/ proper songs, and trippy freak-outs/ psychedelic send-ups.
After a brief intro of backwards vocals, sitar twang, and general psych-scaping. We're into “Rainbow People” which very much summons up the flavour of Lennon & McCartney's psych-pop rock era - weaved through with moments of Harrison-like sitar breakdowns. Next, we have “Love Tonight” which drops squarely into Beach Boys territory- with jaunting keys, harmony layers, and layered/ quirky production. We have the bounding keys singer-songwriter 70’s pop rock of “King Of Showbiz”. Or the early rock ‘n’ roll toned Beatles meets sitar twang of “Freelove Baby”.
In its second half we get a few more shorter tracks. As we move from the layered barbershop meet psych harmony brightness of “It’s Beautiful”. Onto the urgent string chug of “Twirl”. We have The Birds like psych guitar pop glid ‘n’ swoon of “Space And Time”. There’s the very upfront organ pipe and distant vocal wail of “Ride The Snake” which is a rather lazy stab at The Doors sound. With the album playing out with darting rock/ pop meets harmonies, backward tones, and chanted eastern vocal samples of “Tomorrow Drop Dead”.
In finishing most of Greetings From Planet Love lands down well enough- sure there are one or two missteps, and moments of stepping into rather cringe-inducing parody. But if you enjoy the 60 psych era in general- I’d say give this go, and it’s nice to see it getting a reissue after to been nearing 30 years out of print.