American IV: The Man Comes Around

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.

A brilliant cover and end of the career album. Hurt is one of those covers that blows the original out the water Cash makes it his song. When the man comes around is also a brilliant song. Such a raw album deserves to be on the list.

Pretty good. "The Man Comes Around" is a total rip-off of "The Claw" by Ten Benson though.

Similar to the past Johnny Cash albums...just ok but ultimately more underwhelming than not.

kinda boring - prefer johnny singing country

Context. It's all about context. Give this album to a teenager and she'll think it's someone's granddad doing karaoke. Whereas 40something me, getting older, the album has more grounding, reflecting on a life of love, loss, regret and wisdom - albeit through the medium of selected cover songs.

Hurt and Personal Jesus are the stand-out tracks for me. I appreciate the rest, but they aren't as powerful.

Aluksi tästä pitää, mutta aika nopeasti alkaa vähän toistaa itseään. Ehkä jokin tässä Cashin äänessä kertoo siitä, että se tietää itse olevansa nero tekemässä Tärkeää Levyä ja tämä tunnelma tekee kaikesta vähän luotaantyöntävää. Levyn isoin hitti Hurt on oikeasti hyvä laulu (vaikka nykyään vähän meemettinen jo onkin), ja avausraidasta tykkäsin myös. 3/5.