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American IV: The Man Comes Around
This album includes several of the best covers done in the past decade. Trent Reznor's "Hurt" was a good song with Nine Inch Nails, though somewhat over-produced and pretentious with its background industrial sounds and its ham-handed gothic imagery. Johnny Cash strips it down to its barest meaning, and makes it the loneliest sound in the world. One realizes that the lyrics were actually brilliant. Cash does the same with Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus," which--sung in his powerful bellow--becomes more than a smug, ironic song by an electronica pop-band, but a powerful piece about desperation. Simply put, no one can deliver a song with the depth of feeling and nuances of Johnny Cash, and the numerous covers only show how he can add layers even to songs that have become cliche. Those criticizing this album are simply asking it to be a different animal altogether--catchier, sunnier, easier to absorb. But this is a painful album, and Johnny Cash sings with as much as wisdom in his voice as any artist since Bob Dylan's prime. In fact, THE MAN COMES AROUND will make you nostalgic for the slightly off-key but brilliantly soulful duets from NASHVILLE SKYLINE. Cash also chooses some wonderful back-up voices here, using Fiona Apple to great effect in "Bridge over Troubled Water," and teaming up with another baritone, Nick Cave, for a great revamping of Hank Williams. The album is ecletic, inventive, and one of the best genre-crossing displays of talent in many years.
