\u201cThere\u2019s a man goin\u2019 \u2018round takin\u2019 names\u2026\u201d These immutable, half-sung words, rasped out by a man on the verge of death, tracked over a chunking acoustic guitar line begin Johnny Cash\u2019s magnum opus and the final album of this life. \u201cThe Man Comes Around\u201d is by far the best song Cash ever wrote, exceeding his early hits in melody and lyricism and even surpassing picturesque songs like \u201cSunday Morning Coming Down\u201d in its imagery. The apocalyptic theme encapsulates everything Cash believed spiritually and is sung with the conviction of a man who was ready to meet his maker.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s just the first song. American IV<\/i> is an amazing roller coaster of well-picked songs.\u00a0 \u201cThe Man Comes Around\u201d flows seamlessly into Nine Inch Nails\u2019 \u201cHurt,\u201d which takes on a new meaning in Cash\u2019s version. It is sung with the added urgency of an old man reviewing his mistakes and regrets in life before he moves on. Song selection in American IV<\/i> is remarkable, with tunes like Depeche Mode\u2019s \u201cPersonal Jesus\u201d and The Eagles\u2019 \u201cDesperado\u201d sitting beside quiet standards like \u201cThe First Time Ever I Saw Your Face\u201d and \u201cDanny Boy.\u201d \u201cGive My Love to Rose\u201d and \u201cStreets of Laredo\u201d are Western style ballads performed in the bare bones approach of American Recordings<\/i>, while Cash\u2019s remake of his own \u201cTear Stained Letter\u201d sounds like it fits in better with Unchained<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The album also contains a cover of one of the best and also most underrated songs that Sting has ever written, \u201cI Hung My Head.\u201d Cash comes at this modern twist to the Western crime and fugitive ballad with musical simplicity but with conviction and power that does the song justice.\u00a0 Other songs like \u201cIn My Life\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m So Lonesome I Could Cry\u201d are pretty perfunctory, but do not take away from the album as a whole. The only track that could have been done better is \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water,\u201d which features Fiona Apple on harmony vocals. The pair does not mix well, and the rubato nature of Cash\u2019s lead vocal seem to make it hard for Apple to sing with him.<\/p>\n
It is impossible to hear an album that was an artist\u2019s last while they were alive and not read something into the song selections. With American IV<\/i>, these connections are constant. One would think that this would make such an album depressing, but it does not. This final album is the best of Cash\u2019s American years and is a phenomenal capstone to a successful career and life, seeing the Man In Black out with great fanfare and respect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":26471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5664],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-43800","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-johnny-cash","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/43800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=43800"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=43800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}