American IV: The Man Comes Around

I’m a sucker for these records. Some all-timers on this one.

4/5

Cash with a last hurrah doing covers and smashing it out of the park. The Man Comes Around into Hurt has got to be up there with album 1-2s. Absolutely stellar!

I thought this was pretty great. Cash's voice is pretty compelling. I definitely prefer old Johnny Cash to the younger version.

good album, but it's kinda: \"shut up and play the hits. . or someone else's hits even, idc.\" but there was novelty to it at the time making it hugely popular to the mainstream. you had people who never before listened to johnny cash or NIN telling you how great it all was.

but that's not Johnny's fault. he just showed up and killed it, even at 900 years old.

Same exceptional tracks on here (Hurt is overplayed but sure, it's the best version - LOVE the Sting cover I Hung My Head), but there's filler and the "We'll Meet Again" singalong at the end is cringe

Beautiful album from one of our best voices. Some tracks do more for me than others. Not huge into his version of Bridge Over Troubled Water compared to the original. Favorites are The Man Comes Around, Hurt, I Hung My Head, In My Life, and Streets of Laredo.

Really special. Some unexpected covers and classics as well - I think the modern ones are the most effective but will never scoff at anyone paying tribute to the Eagles. A few songs towards the end lost my interest, and Nick Cave’s weird attempt completely took me out of the mood.

This album is kind of hit and miss. Hurt is amazing, Bridge Over Troubled Water was good. Some of the choices he made were kind of strange. Did we need a Johnny Cash version of Personal Jesus? No, no we didn't. The production was kind of all over too, some of it was fantastic and some of it was basically like if your grandpa recorded covers on a 4 track in his living room. Which this probably was. Was it just me or does anyone else hear him softly whistling as he breathes through his nose on a couple tracks?

Don't get me wrong, Johnny Cash was a national treasure but I feel like this doesn't really deserve the accolades it received when it came out, Hurt excepted.

3.2 per track. Some absolutely fantastic songs and some not so great, nothing too awful.

Such a great one. I listened to this a ton when it was new. Hurt is one of the all-time great covers.

There's some nice covers in here, alongside a few original songs. It's very soulful. Plenty of songs that are stripped way back, but mostly hit well. I really like the first track, that's great. Hurt is brilliant. First Time Ever I Saw Your Face is a standout, which has a real depth of feeling.

CASH

He absolutely butchered Hurt.

Great vocals, great tunes. Of course the background of his impending death adds weight to the emotion, but a stunning album regardless.

Okay, covers in Cash's voice is a cheat code. This is amazing.

HL: "Hurt", "Personal Jesus", "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", "In My Life", "Give My Love to Rose", "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry"

Though I agree that it's a great cover, I picked up on Rick Rubin's clipping during "Hurt" and got a little annoyed that he produced this album

Love it but it’s a drag

April 6, 2023

5
Before I even listen to it today, 5 🌟 on my love for the man, and this collection in particular.

After listening, I am reminded of the fragility and power of his voice, often in the same song, and the genius of the song choices and production work by Rick Rubin. I has also forgotten Fiona Apple shows up, and fits in perfectly with the mood and tone.

All in all a virtually perfect album, and one of a very small number that my dad and I would both have in our top handful of albums.

Redemption album

Pretty much the perfect way to reinvent yourself towards the end of your career. Put your faith in a visionary producer, open yourself up to unexpected material, strip it down to basics, reinvent said material (including your own) with the sheer weight of your life which is reflected in your voice.

Johnny Cash was both incredibly open minded and supremely humble to be able to put his faith in Rick Rubin. Likewise, Rick Rubin had absolute reverence for Johnny Cash and knew just how to focus on his strengths without overdoing anything. Perhaps the oddest pairing of producer and performer I can think of, but man they made one of the best parting gifts to music of all time.

Wow, I can't believe they removed this from the 1001 albums. Such a poignant album - Johnny died less than a year after its release. While you can hear the pain and age in his voice, he still sounds amazing. In fact, that's one of the reasons I love "Sam Hall" - despite his age and illness he's still got some fun energy to share.

The most well known track is his amazing cover of NIN's Hurt. Trent Reznor famously said it was no longer his song after Johnny Cash covered it. The video is painful to watch - June Carter Cash looks on at Johnny in his pain and illness, yet she predeceased him - they both died within the next year. The track is powerful enough without that fact - it becomes devastating with it.

Every track is fantastic, but the standouts for me are The Man Comes Around, Hurt, Bridge Over Troubled Water (Johnny's voice makes this and In My Life sound so much more powerful than the originals, both of which I love), I Hung My Head (better than Sting's original - notice a trend here?), First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, In My Life (hearing John Lennon sing it with the Beatles is nice, but he was a young man - it means much more coming from an old man near the end of his life), Sam Hall, Danny Boy (beautiful rendition), Desperado (again, better than the original), I'm So Lonely I Could Cry (I thought it was Bonnie Prince Billy singing with him - listen to "I See a Darkness" on American III - but it turned out to be Nick Cave), We'll Meet Again (what a great song to end the last album released during his lifetime. Great touch that the last song is an optimistic song that sounds free of pain). Did I just name almost all the tracks on the album? Yes, yes I did. Absolute 5.