The Cactus Blossoms – Easy Way
Walkie Talkie Records – 1 March 2019
Everly Brothers-style harmonies and vintage country influenced rock’n’roll balladry, twanged guitar, what’s not to love! Following on from their terrific self-titled debut and 2016’s You’re Dreaming, the self-produced third studio album by Minneapolis half-brothers Page Burkum and Jack Torrey is an utter delight for those enamoured of those catchy 60s melodies and close harmonies. Indeed, the classic opening retro sound of rebels in romance Desperado with its shuffling rhythm, handclaps and cascading chords will walk you right back to those days of high school dances and soda shop hangouts.
Which isn’t to say they’re completely anchored in yesterday, the album featuring free jazz saxophonist Michael Lewis alongside the traditional twang and pedal steel, while the lyrics depart from the familiar Everylsesque tales of teen romance troubles to address subjects like being a slave to electronic devices that feed our habits not our needs (the Orbison and rockabilly-tinged Please Don’t Call Me Crazy) and the injustices of minimum wage slavery (Downtown with its hints of Tom Petty) while I’m Calling You may well be about some guy spending the night trying to phone his ex, but there are also undertones of reaching out for help in escaping the dark places the mind can go to when alone and lost.
Not that they don’t do bruised heart pop, just check out the rippling rhythm and drum machine beats of the keyboards swirling Got A Lotta Love, one of two songs co-penned by Black Keys singer Dan Auerbach, the languid waltz-time crooned title track with its waves washing on the shore feel and the decidedly Lennon-shaded fug of Boomerang.
Despite the promising twang and steel stained intro, the one-paced Burkum-penned See It Through never really lifts off, but it’s the only minor disappointment, the album ending with the Cash-like country chug I Am The Road and, the other Auerbach co-write, the second seasoning of Lennon with the dreamy Blue As The Ocean’s echoes of This Boy. Something old, something new, something borrowed and, indeed, something blue. That’s the easy way to do it.
Press image: Nate Ryan