Customer Reviews

American IV: The Man Comes Around

5 star:		(288)
4 star:		(53)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am the least capable person to review this album. This man had been writing and singing songs for forty years and all I'd heard of him was "Ring Of Fire". I knew the song. I did not know who sang it. It was all but another one of these inevitable songs on every compilation, and one of these songs every channel my parents loved so much would play. I never noticed. Today, I still know hardly more.

One late-summer evening as I was zapping through the music channels here in The Netherlands, my thumb froze over the remote. On the screen singing was, not the usual parade of lewd, crafted, playbacking little mouths seemingly right of production lines, not good capable singers only better than the rest because of management and advertisement skills; it was a man dressed in black, looking old as death, with a voice raw as a crow's. I did not know it was he, if it had mattered. It was Cash, singing "Hurt". I looked, listened but then more. It was so unspeakably sad, so unfathomably melancholic. How can I describe the emotions hearing that song? Haunted and moved don't seem adequate.

Enchantment. I was a youth with a passion for music: metal, symphonic, classic, techno. Give it to me, give it to me every day, all day long. I'll be satisfied. I was a youth, looking at an old man, singing for me, singing of his life and emotions. Music moves me always, but it was this music, barely more than a voice and an acoustic guitar, that drew a tear, dropped into my heart - then another and another. Silent, invisible tears filling hollows, and all that showed on the outside, were a sniff of the nose and a blink of the eyes. I was a youth.

Many of the songs on this final album, including "Hurt", are covers, even though some are his own. Cash here also covers Paul Simon, Hank Williams and John Lennon. Not all of his arrangements are better than the originals. Technically. But Cash performs with such feeling, such sway, such voice, that this is the most cherished music I've bought in a lifetime.

Then, as I sat there oblivious, and wishing I had seen the whole thing, the clip ended and I saw Cash's name. I turned off the set, stood, and hoped I would hear it again. Weeks later, Cash was dead. Today, I still know hardly more.

Five stars to this album

Bram Janssen,
The Netherlands

This collection of songs from various artists sung by the great man in black is superb. All of the songs tell tales of heart-break, loves, losses, armageddon, and hope. The great thing about Cash on this album is that he really uses his voice to evoke the emotions behind the songs. On "Hurt," a tune by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Cash sings "What have I become/My sweetest Friend/Everyone I know goes away/In the end," and boy can you tell that he means what he sings. It's so brilliant that I prefer Cash's version to the original. Cash has never been known for his beautiful voice, so like Dylan, he uses his own phrasings to really carry the song. He was very wise in his choices of what songs to record on this album. He chose stuff that you wouldn't think he would choose, such as "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode, and "Bridge Over troubled water" by Simon and Garfunkel. Rick Rubin did a perfect job with the production on this album, it's somewhat spare. With so much passion and range of emotion on this album I couldn't give it anything less than five stars. It deserves a place in any music lovers collection.

This American Recording is different. On this album Johnny Cash (who is now 70 years old) never tries to fool himself or us listeners into thinking that he's going to keep on making album after album after album. Let's face it - the voice is even more ragged and torn than last time (American III) and the lyrics are even more desolate, lonesome, and dark than ever before. But this album of new and old originals & covers is probably one of the most beautiful I've ever heard.

Johnny Cash is not a singer. He never was. But without that dark baritone these songs would not have the impact that they do. I could talk about ever individual track on the album - but I'd rather just make it short and sweet by mentioning a few personal favorites.

"The Man Comes Around" - A Cash original that seemed to take a lot of time to get down (coming from the linear notes). Amazing song about that thing called the apocolypse and judgement day. Nobody could do it like Cash. Nobody...

"Hurt" - Johnny Cash takes one of Trent Reznor's (Nine Inch Nails) best songs and makes it even better. Not only does Cash make the song better but he also makes it seem as if the song was meant for just him. Oh, and there is a word change. Where Reznor would say "I wear this crown of sh*t", Johnny now says "I wear this crown of thorns." The change first kinda put me off but then it seems that Johnny's variation make much more sense then the first.

"Bridge over Toubled Water" - just a great cover of an amazing classic. Fiona Apple adds some tender backing vocals that help Johnny along this tune of trouble and redemption.

"First time ever I saw your face" - Just as where Cash left off on "Spiritual" (from American II) he starts back at with this one. Truly beautiful. Sounds as if they recorded it in a church for Johnny has this amazing echo on his voice. If you don't get tears in your eyes from this one, you're hopeless.

"Sam Hall" - one of the "lighter" tracks, but still painted in black.

"I'm so lonesome I could Cry" - I don't know how it happened. They got 2 of the most interesting singers to appear on a country classic. Nick Cave (who's a big favorite of mine) lent "The Mercy Seat" to Johnny's last American Recording (III), but this time he's lending his voice. Cash and Cave swap lines from this Hank Williams classic.

"We'll meet Again" - so you go through this dark and cold world where people can't even remember how to pray let alone carry a bible and then you come to the end and a smile is finally cracks and some light pours through as the door opens. Cash ends on a positive note and the whole damn Cash family joins in at the very end.

Who knows if Cash will record anymore albums. It's hard to tell. The man is in and out of the hospital constantly (or so it seems) and any one of us would've probably called it quits. Elvis didn't make it, Orbison didn't make it, but the Man in Black is still reaching out and touching us. He's still tormented by the feeling that music must be played. He's still not thinking that this will be the last song he sings. He's still got soul and he's still got love.

This music stands with Astral Weeks, Sgt Pepper, and Blonde on Blonde, and Big Pink.

It's stark, and overwhelming, and so beautiful...

All of the songs you thought you knew you didn't. You haven't heard 'Bridge Over Trouble Waters.' Paul Simon couldn't have meant this much when he wrote it. Cash couldn't have understood 'Give My Love To Rose' when he wrote it. 'In My Life' was pretty sentiment, then. Here, it is a bedrock statement, a will, a legacy of dignity and love.

Listen here to a Great American Hero, a hero like Whitman, or Ginsberg, or Hawthorne or Woody Guthrie. Listen here to the reason that John Ford made 'Fort Apache,' and Pynchon wrote
'Gravity's Rainbow,' and Nicholson became Jake in 'Chinatown.'

People, this is the sound of a man dying, with the strength, grace and the dignity of an angel, or a cowboy. Thank Christ that you were alive to hear him.

"The Man Comes Around" would be a pretty remarkably album even if Johnny Cash weren't as terribly ill as he's reported to be. That a man over 70 can still generate this much intensity is nothing short of astounding. There are a lot of successful mediocre rock bands out there who ought to take note. Cash's albums for American records have been uniformly fine, but this may be the best one yet.

What really stands out is the song selection. Cash's version of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" takes the cold techno-rock anthem out of the freezer and warms it up to the point where it sounds as if the apocalypse is upon us. Other well known songs getting the benefits of Cash's God-like voice are the Simon and Garfunkle standard "Bridge Over Troubled Water," the Eagles's "Desperado" (which takes on a whole new meaning) and the formerly syrupy ballad "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." Other highlights include the title track, "Give My Love to Rose" and the mournful "I Hung My Head." A few songs don't work quite as well and there are occasions when Cash's voice seems to waver from fatigue, but that is mere quibbling.

Overall, another triumph from one of America's greatest-ever musicians.

About two months ago I was flipping through channels when MTV2 ran a video of Johnny Cash doing a cover of Trent Reznor's "Hurt" -- which is an excellent song/video in its own right -- but the Cash version gave me chills. Whether or not you're a fan of either, it must be said that Mr Cash's interpretation is simply mesmerizing. Here is a man that has been kicked to the ground so many times and has battled so many demons that the pain registers. It's unnerving and it's frightening. In this cover, he just hangs on to each word of the song beautifully. And there's a scene with his wife (June Carter Cash) that's almost too painful to watch. She's clearly uncomfortable with the subject matter. Breathtaking. I immediately bought the album and was BLOWN away. With pared-down vocals and sparse arrangements, you're given an intimate and very dark look into the psyche of a man so multi-dimensional that he can BEAUTIFULLY remaster otherwise feeble works written and performed by "artists" like Sting and The Eagles. It's a shame that kids are SO over-exposed to unoriginal, rehashed garage punk (it's over); the "diva" caterwalling (it's WAY over) and over-sampled hip-hop (when it's popular in the Burbs kids, then it's time to step away from the gangsta-rap aisle). Mr. Cash is a true legend. This CD is a masterpiece.

"There's a man coming around taking names...the hairs on your arm will stand up...." So begins the title track of Johnny Cash's last released album, before his death last month. Prophetic, apocalyptic, and staring death in the eye...Cash delivers a profoundly moving farewell. His American Recordings series, produced by Rick Rubin, has been a triumph, returning Johnny Cash to his bare-bones hardscrabble country roots. Yet, the spare instrumentation provides Cash space to dig deep into each song, bringing a richness and poignancy that is as deeply affecting as a thousand symphony orchestras . His voice on AMERICAN IV-by turns rumbly, trembly, growly, stately, and even pleading-is the voice of Everyman...conversely, if Mount Rushmore could sing, it would sound like Johnny Cash. It should be noted that Johnny is backed by some amazing musicians, including Marty Stuart, Billy Preston, and members of The Heartbreakers. Opening up the CD is Cash's own song, "The Man Comes Around," which is a chilling meditation on the Biblical Book of Revelation, and Cash sings it as though he is giving a personal eyewitness narrative. And, in many ways, he is qualified, having been to hell and back more than once in his life, which gives the anti-drug "Hurt" a special resonance. The author of "Hurt," Trent Reznor, said that he literally stopped and wept when he saw Cash's video presentation of the song...he called it a highlight of his life. One would imagine that any author would feel the same way, no matter how prestigious or notable the author. Johnny next sings a re-make of his own classic "Give My Love to Rose," a heartbreaking prison ballad that takes on added emotion and depth in this new recording. Then, coming from "way out in Left Field" is Paul Simon's standard, "Bridge Over Troubled Water," featuring the vocals of Fiona Apple and a strange lovely mellotron. You have to hear it to believe it; and the end result is surprisingly beautiful. After listening to "I Hung My Head," a tragic tale of accidental death, I was shocked to discover that the author of the song was none other than Sting...it certainly sounds like vintage Cash, and Johnny absolutely makes the song his own. Rarely has personal love been expressed in a more intimate or vulnerable way than when Johnny sings "The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face," and you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is singing it straight to June. Next up is a curious choice: "Personal Jesus," which was written and recorded by the new wave synth band Depeche Mode more than a decade ago...Cash turns it into a biting, sarcastic indictment of wolves in sheep's clothing who prey on the innocent behind a façade of religion. The Lennon/McCartney ballad, "In My Life," fits Johnny to a "T"...the acoustic melody washing over Johnny's warm vocals. But, this being a Johnny Cash record, he doesn't want things becoming too warm and cuddly, so he presents-how can I say this-a very funny, wry murder/execution song called "Sam Hall." He portrays Sam as a mean-spirited, hateful, frustrated villain. Here is Cash at his most feisty and ornery, but you can almost hear the twinkle in his eyes as he sings Sam's cursing and raving. Having taken the listener on a wild ride thus far, Cash next leaps over to Ireland for a hymn-like rendition of "Danny Boy," which is sung with great tenderness, without a trace of irony or cynicism. Then...how about the Eagles? Why not? Johnny Cash sings "Desperado" as a personal testimonial...here is another character that Mr. Cash knows all too well. And Hank Williams, Sr. could have been writing about certain seasons of Johnny's life when he composed "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," and Johnny seizes upon those memories as he effectively covers this song in a duet with Nick Cave...no stranger to dark nights himself. "Tear-Stained Letter" is a very dark song of lost love, so of course then, the music and arrangement is sprightly and upbeat...a good thing, because if the music matched the lyrics, it might be unbearably sad. This album, having long passed the plateau of "epic achievement," continues with the dying cowboy ballad, "Streets of Laredo"-Johnny sings the cowboy's funeral instructions, even as he was no doubt contemplating his own. And is it morbid? Not for a second...it's a fitting tribute to every "young cowboy" who died before his time. And just when it seems Johnny's heart-and yours-can bear no more, Johnny goes all jaunty on us for the closer: "We'll Meet Again." Doggone if he doesn't bring out clarinet and dobro and "The Whole Cash Gang" for a hopeful, almost whimsical sing-along about death and dying, that is highlighted by Johnny's touching spoken-word affirmation: "So honey, keep smiling through, just like you always do, `til the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away." And then, Johnny went out...he went onward and upward to a better place...singing this song.

Johnny Cash has improved with age, not like a fine wine, but more like a mature whisky. A young man could not sing these songs with such depth and such profound personal faith.

"American IV: The Man Comes Around" is another in an astounding collection. Continuing the theme in the previous American recordings, Cash performs a mix of modern interpretations of other musicians coupled with his own current creations. If you are not familiar with the originals, it is difficult to tell which category a song falls into. Each song is a treasure of intimacy, and I feel privileged that he has chosen to share them.

I enjoyed "Streets of Laredo" and "Desperado" as the familiar cowboy songs that they are. "Danny Boy" is every thing you think it would be. Truly touching, however, are the versions of "In My Life" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water." I am amazed that anyone ever sung these songs any other way.

Highly, highly, highly recommended.

I think I would rather hear Johnny Cash sing than anyone else on God's green earth. This album once again proves that Johnny is still a great songwriter with three originals ("The Man Comes Around", "Give My Love to Rose", and "Tear Stained Letter") that truly get to the heart of one of America's true living icons. He puts a new gutwrenching and tear-enducing spin on Nine Inch Nails melodrama "Hurt," duets with Fiona Apple on the Simon and Garfunkel gem "Bridge Over Troubled Waters," adds a little country blues to Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus," sings directly to June Carter Cash with The Beatles beautiful "In My Life," shows up the Eagles with his take on "Desperado," and duets with Nick Cave on Hank Williams' "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," making each song truly his own. He sings them as if he wrote them to the point of amazement. Cash never fails to exceed expectations. This album is a must have, as are the previous three American Recordings. You just don't appreciate music unless you appreciate these albums, or any of Cash's work for that matter. Johnny closes the album with a rousing version of the classic "We'll Meet Again," complete with a choir of friends and family behind him on the last bit. This song indicates that Cash is indeed aware that with his health, it may be his last album of material before he passes on. It is a beautiful close to a beautiful album and a magnificent body of work that could never be matched. Johnny's my hero. I pray that we get more music from Cash before his time comes. I certainly hope that we do meet again.

Before listening to this album, I had been a "casual" Cash fan at best; I was acquainted only with the widely known and easily recognizable classics like "I Walk the Line" and "Folsom Prison Blues" and also with some of his American III covers. But one listen to "Hurt," and I was converted. I had always been a fan of Trent Reznor's original, but Cash's rendition gave new meaning, new depth, new vitality to the song--which all his covers on this album do, some even surpassing the orginals.

Cash's illnesses have clearly taken a toll on his voice, as he himself has admitted. And yet, even though he sounds much older and his voice is shakier and a little raspier, the old strength is still there somehow--the power and conviction of The Man in Black still resonate. The songs here are full of character, full of passion, performed by a man who has "been there," who hasn't always had the easiest of times.

The opening track, Cash's own "The Man Comes Around," is a stirring and chilling (in a good way) portrayal of the Apocalypse. And the image of "the whirlwind in the thorn tree" is simply perfect, so rich in meaning. I've only recently begun my journey into Cash's music, but I definitely must put this among his very best.

"Hurt," "Hung My Head," and "In My Life" stand out (at least to me) among the covers. "In My Life" has a slower, darker, more melancholy feeling than The Beatles original; Cash adds a whole range of emotion and meaning that The Beatles didn't convey, and somehow Cash's seems more appropriate to the lyrics--in any event, I'll never hear the song the same way again. I've never heard Sting's "Hung My Head," but the song and its topic seem as though they were tailor-made for Cash. Had I not known it was a Sting cover, I'd have guessed it was one of Cash's own. And "Hurt"--absolutely amazing. Words really can't quite describe this song--the pain and regret that are there, the torment and bewilderment, the loss. Listening to this song, I'm convinced it is HIS, no matter who wrote it.

But there's not a bad, or even remotely bad, track on this album. Each song is a gem, special in its own way, whether written by Cash or not. This is music as it should be--deep and personal and meaningful and emotional, not superficial like nearly all of today's rock and pop and much of modern country. It's the kind of music that you listen to and never forget. It has a beauty all its own. It touches you at the core of your being and changes you--in ways you can't quite put your finger on, can't quite describe. This is the kind of music Johnny Cash makes. And this is the kind of music that fills American IV.