ALBUM REVIEW: The Cactus Blossoms Move Along on ‘Every Time I Think About You’

As The Cactus Blossoms, brothers Jack Torrey and Page Burkum have been assembling their version of revivalist Americana now for nearly a decade and a half. In that time, they’ve established a unique sound, rooted deep in early rock and roll, folk, and country-western music.

Their latest release, Every Time I Think About You, marks their fifth studio album and their first release since 2022, when the pair released both One Day (ND review) and an EP of Bob Dylan covers, If Not For You. Recording at Creation Audio in their homebase of Minneapolis, the duo were joined by their usual backing band, drummer Jeremy Hanson, guitarist Jacob Hanson, pianist Alex Hall, and bassist Phillip Hicks, providing the album with more texture and rhythmic bite beneath their characteristic harmonies than on their previous releases.

A theme of leaving is written all across the album’s 10 songs, beginning first with a song about needing to stay. “Something’s Got a Hold on Me,” is a true-blue rock and roller penned by Burkum and propped up by Hicks’ rollicking bassline. “I’m in the grip of insanity / Livin’ in the land of the free” he sings, pure and simple.

“Be What I Wanna” is the band’s take on the dark soul of Roy Orbison’s best. It’s the album’s most hypnotic number, complete with a solo-era John Lennon melody, which Torrey delivers with just the right amount of smoke. The album’s title track is pure Americana dream pop, anchored to a remarkably uncomplicated chorus. The pair seem to approach their craft with a classicist’s ear, always finding the cleanest words to fill up their harmonies.

The Cactus Blossoms: Jack Torrey, left, and Page Burkum (photo by Aaron Rice)

The Cactus Blossoms are observers of leaving on “There She Goes,” another of the stronger revivalist rockers on the album, propelled forward by Hanson’s backbeat. Revolving and resolving chords build this song into an instrumental break as near to Wilco country as they’ve ever come. They continue the narrative trend of departure on “Keep Walkin’,” a blues rock romp that even borrows a Dylan line: “Sundown, yellow moon.”

Other songs on Every Time I Think About You find the duo reverting back to more familiar musical forms. Continuing their variations on leaving, there’s “Statues” and “Honey I’m Homeless.” On the latter, Torrey recounts a lost weekend spent with a pool sharking Texas woman.

The album concludes with “Out of My Mind (On Sunday),” which features the pair singing about seeking something beyond. And that’s the real takeaway from Every Time I Think About You, which captures The Cactus Blossoms leaving some of their old tricks behind. Their words are simple and melodies are still pristine, but they achieve their finest work when they combine their retro leanings with more grooveable rhythms and cosmic country sounds.

The Cactus Blossoms’ Every Time I Think About You is out Aug. 30 via Walkie Talkie Records.