Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash

American IV: The Man Comes Around (Def American) Considering his deteriorating health, it's amazing Johnny Cash is even able to record these days, which may ultimately explain the elegant, austere beauty of The Man Comes Around. This time around, producer Rick Rubin teams Cash with Benmont Tench on piano, and Randy Travis, Randy Scruggs, and Thom Bresh on guitars for some very understated arrangements. The title cut is a Cash original with plenty of raw spirituality and the weight of the years bearing down on his voice. That weather-beaten quality tints Sting's "I Hung My Head" and Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus" nicely. On the other hand, Cash's voice has always had its limitations, and on "Danny Boy" and the Beatles' "In My Life," they're all too apparent. The country icon's longtime association with Rubin also has him taking on the warhorse "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (with Fiona Apple) and the Eagles' "Desperado," and Cash makes them sound like his own. That said, it would've been more satisfying to hear Cash take on new treatments of old favorites. There's plenty to like here, with the restrained production and the weariness of Cash's voice bordering on exhaustion. Still, if this were Johnny Cash's last album (God forbid), it'd be better for his coda to be less reliant on oddball covers.