21022014 - Cactus "Cactus V"

It took them 34 years, but by 2006 Cactus had reformed and released this album, with the Cactus core of Carmine Appice, Tim Bogert and Jim McCarty being supplemented by singer Jimmy Kunes and harmonica player Randy Pratt. Most reunions like this are more fun than actually great, and most comeback albums after this many years are simply dismal, so let's start with the good news: "Cactus V" doesn't suck. That's not to say it in any way measures up to their heyday albums, but that was never expected either. There's a couple of real humdingers on this album, like "Muscle and Soul", "Cactus Music" and "Electric Blue", and then there's the absolutely redundant old white man's funk of "Your Brother's Keeper". The album as a whole is pretty average, something that could have been easily avoided had the band stuck to one simple rule from their own book. See, their four classic albums all had eight songs on them, but this one has fourteen! A classic case of "let's fill this CD", and a trap many a band have fallen into, which is a shame, because this could have been a damn good 8-song album. Oh well, four absolutely great albums and one decent out of five in total is still a better average than most other bands ever achieve...