I have a habit of hating cover albums purely out of spite for how lazy they seem to me. However, when an artist changes the song to the point where it is almost unrecognisable I instantly start to respect them. This may seem odd but you can not deny that for a cover album this is pure genious. This album is part of the incredibly successful American series recorded by Rick Rubin and Cash himself. This was released the year before Cash's death and was the 4th of the 5 part American series. It also has, what is easily, his greatest hit in the form of his cover of Nine Inch Nail's
Hurt. Other than
Hurt you may have heard the other single
Personal Jesus or
The Man Comes Around of the introduction to the 2002 remake of Dawn of the Dead. To be honest, I find Cash's work in the American series far better than anything else he wrote and this is certianly no exception. As a warning, his later works are very slow compared to his earlier stuff and are far more simplistic.
As we all know, Johnny Cash was not a brilliant guitarist. However, Cash's writing was always far more about how he could adapt his emotions in to the music rather that his skills as a musician. Even though these songs are not his own he sure makes it his own with his emotional playing all through this album. This album is definately not for people who listen to music purely for the technicality and teh shred0rx. You will not even find a solo on this album. This album is definately not progressive either, you will not find constant key/time signature changes. But what you do get is intelligent playing with a haunting and saddening affect. Something that adds to this affect is the incredible vocals on this album. By incredible I certainley do not mean technically good but they do suit their purpose down to a T. Cash's vocals are far more spoken than sung on this record and adds for a much more haunting affect. It really does work incredibly in some of the more sad songs such as
I Hung my Head and
Hurt. The albums theme, as many of the American series seem to have, appears to be Cash questioning his place in life, his accomplishments and death. A key example of this is
Hurt which seems to be Johnny Cash looking back at his life. He also changes the lyrics at one point to say "I wear this crown of thorns". This links him to Jesus which quite clearly shows Cash is proud of what he has done in life.
If you haven't worked it out thus far then I thought I'd inform you I love this album long time. It is a basic yet intelligent album and is in short, a classic. Seeing as it's country I guess it's not everyone's thing but if you are open to music and have not heard this then definately check this out. Fans of old Johnny Cash, however, may not like this anywhere near as much because there has been a huge change in his style over the years but should check this out anyway. You may also want to avoid this if you dislike simple singer/songwriter style music seeing as this consists of guitar/vocals and not much else. Apart from that this album is Johnny Cash/country at his best. In the genre I would easily give this a 5 but overall I give this a 4.5.
Recommended songs
The Man Comes Around
Hurt
I Hung My Head
Personal Jesus
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