The Man in Black may be dead but he sure isn't gone (The Man Comes Around: American IV - Johnny Cash)

Name: Miss Gretta

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Product:	The Man Comes Around: American IV - Johnny Cash
Date:	12/04/07 (128 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Phenomenal vocals with compelling, sparse music - pure genius

Disadvantages: One or two poorly chosen tracks

Do you all remember where you were when you heard that Johnny Cash had died? I was at a Cat Power concert (a great musician but truly one of the worst live performances I’ve ever seen, but that’s another story), in the lull between the support act and the main show. I distinctly remember feeling supremely cheated because he died before I had had a chance to see him perform live. But then the American Recordings albums were released posthumously and I felt like maybe they made up for his death in some way. They are a brilliant legacy from a brilliant man.

The album American IV: The Man Comes Around, released after Cash’s death on the 12th of September 2003, consists of mostly covers and a couple of notable new tracks. In the way that only true brilliance, creative verve and originality can achieve, there is very little that seems stale or rehashed about the covers on the album. And the new songs are amongst the most moving and powerful of Cash’s career. This album rates sky-high for first time enjoyment as well as staying power over repeated listens. It’s true enough to the style that Cash developed over a career spanning almost 50 years for long-standing fans to love it, and accessible enough to win the Man in Black a whole new generation of fans.

Produced by Rick Rubin the album manages to be both sparse and grandiose. The vocals are pushed right to the front of the mix and Cash’s gravely, vulnerable and yet strangely powerful voice feels like it’s right in your ear without the intervention of time and recording equipment (and even, if I am to be melodramatic, death). It is a testament to his ability as a singer-storyteller that even through the lyrics that Cash himself did not write the album tells the story of a man with a patchwork past reconciling himself to the good and the bad that he has done, his failing health, his faith and his mortality.

Track listing:
1. The Man Comes Around (Cash)
2. Hurt (Nine Inch Nails)
3. Give My Love To Rose
4. Bridge Over Troubled Water
5. I Hung My Head (Sting)
6. First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
7. Personal Jesus (Depeche Mode)
8. In My Life (Beatles)
9. Sam Hall
10. Danny Boy
11. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
12. Tear Stained Letter
13. Streets of Laredo
14. We’ll Meet Again

The album opens with the crackle of an analogue recording and Cash’s voice reading what is presumably a passage from the bible. Cash’s strong Christian faith, discovered rather late in a life previously dominated by drugs and debauchery, is a recurring theme throughout the album but this should not deter any agnostics or atheists out there. You don’t have to be in love to enjoy a great love song and the same principle applies here.
‘Hurt’ is undoubtedly the stand-out track on the album and despite being relatively sparse instrumentally the intensity continues to build throughout, reaching an almost overwhelming climax at the end. The award-winning music video, which is included on some versions of the album, shows footage of an aging Cash looking every inch as despairing, destroyed, and defiant as the song describes. Listen to the track and you will be astounded to think that it was originally a Nine Inch Nails recording; this particular version is undeniably Cash.

‘Give My Love to Rose’ will have a more familiar feel to fans of Cash’s earlier work as it represents more of a return to the Country style. If you are recoiling at the idea of ‘Country and Western’ music you can stop right now, this isn’t twanging guitars and bleached blond hair; this is the story of a recently released ex-con dying on the roadside and entrusting all his money and last words for his family to a complete stranger.

‘I Hung My Head’ is another favourite of mine, full of the regret and remorse of a man’s momentary lapse that has catastrophic results. Cash’s ability to fully absorb the emotion of the song into his voice, without ever sounding like it’s an act, brings reality and atmosphere to songs that would seem sentimental in the hands of a lesser singer.

‘Personal Jesus’ is an anomaly on the album as far as I’m concerned. The original Depeche Mode version is a dark, satirical track but it seems like Cash tried to inject the lyrics with an earnestness that just doesn’t work. Delete this song from the playlist of the album.

In case you were wondering if the whole album is soaked in regret and sorrow, ‘Sam Hall’ is an upbeat and irreverent track that never fails to bring a wry smile to my face.

The album closes with ‘We’ll Meet Again’, a sad but hopeful song about departures and reunions. Given that at the time of recording, Cash was mourning the death of his wife June Carter and was faced with his own deteriorating health, the track seems to have been chosen as a statement about Cash’s feelings about life after death and his acceptance of his own mortality.

The album has been described as having a ‘quiet pathos with ever present wry grin and sense of humour about life’. I completely endorse this description but would add that it is an incredibly ambitious and courageous project for a man of Cash’s age to embark on so late in his musical career. It is courageous both as an open and vulnerable near-autobiographical collection, and as a departure from so much of his previous work. And, it’s just really great music.

Summary: Possibly one of the best 'covers' records of all time