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List Price: $13.98 | | Label: Lost Highway
Salesrank: 1384
Released: November 5, 2002 |
| Our Price: $10.49 |
| Used Price: $4.90 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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American IV: The Man Comes Around Track Listing:
1. The Man Comes Around
2. Hurt
3. Give My Love To Rose
4. Bridge Over Troubled Water
5. I Hung My Head
6. First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
7. Personal Jesus
8. In My Life
9. Sam Hall
10. Danny Boy
11. Desperado
12. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
13. Tear Stained Letter
14. Streets of Laredo
15. We'll Meet Again
Editorial Review:
UK special edition reissue of The Man In Black's brilliant 2002 album includes two bonus tracks, 'Big Iron' (previously vinyl only) & 'Hurt' (video). American Recordings. 2003.
Description of American IV: The Man Comes Around:
On first thought, the idea of the Man in Black recording such covers as "Bridge over Troubled Water," "Danny Boy," and "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" might seem odd, even for an artist who's been able to put his personal stamp on just about everything. But American IV: The Man Comes Around, which also draws on Cash's original songs as well as those by Nine Inch Nails ("Hurt"), Sting ("I Hung My Head"), and Depeche Mode ("Personal Jesus"), may be one of the most autobiographical albums of the 70-year-old singer-songwriter's career. Nearly every tune seems chosen to afford the ailing giant of popular music a chance to reflect on his life, and look ahead to what's around the corner. From the opening track--Cash's own "The Man Comes Around," filled with frightening images of Armageddon--the album, produced by Rick Rubin, advances a quiet power and pathos, built around spare arrangements and unflinching honesty in performance and subject. In 15 songs, Cash moves through dark, haunted meditations on death and destruction, poignant farewells, testaments to everlasting love, and hopeful salutes to redemption. He sounds as if he means every word, his baritone-bass, frequently frayed and ravaged, taking on a weary beauty. By the time he gets to the Beatles' "In My Life," you'll very nearly cry. Go ahead. He sounds as if he's about to, too. Unforgettable. --Alanna Nash
American IV: The Man Comes Around Reviews:
Last Will and Testament 
2009-11-22 - There's very little doubt in my mind that "American IV: The Man Comes Around" is a great work, and like a lot of great art, it asks more questions than it answers. That's also true of Johnny Cash. Does that make him a great man?
It seems likely - I can't think of many other artists in any style who wrote one of their best works at such an advanced age, but that's exactly what Cash did with the title tune, "The Man Comes Around". This song sets the tone in a lot of ways for the rest of the album - it sounds like a sermon, but rather than an attempt to explain the spiritual world, it's more like an attempt to fathom it. In his liner notes, Cash confirms that a lot of those images come from the Book of Revelation, but they're presented as less judgmental than simply descriptive, and Cash's voice is less triumphant than stunned.
Of course, he had good reason to be surprised at this point. Who would have thought that Johnny Cash would not only be recording for hip-hop king Rick Rubin at this time of his life, but that he would be such a smash at it that he had to do it four times? This might explain his famous decision to record some astonishingly out-of-character songs for this set.
He included a few originals, including his old standard "Give My Love to Rose", and a few traditional favorites like "Streets of Laredo", but this album got the most attention for Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" and Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus". If you listen to the original versions of those numbers, you have to ask yourself what possessed the Man in Black to perform a couple of synthesizer tunes with industrial overtones of all things.
Before we get into that, I'm going to talk a little about the rest of the album, because I think those two cuts actually fit into it pretty well. Cash was always interested in the extremity of human experience - all you have to do is listen to "Ring of Fire" and you understand that. This includes everything from passion and ecstasy to despair and death, very often leavened with a healthy dose of laughs. "American IV" is in some ways the ideal of this approach to music, and the stripped-down accompaniment brings the themes into sharp relief.
Cash's voice adds a lot, too. It was always a devastating instrument, of the kind that sounded like it could bring the walls of the temple crashing down, but let's face it - in 2002 the man was in his late 60s and suffering from a chronic blood condition, and the voice had worn down a lot. It sounds less like the voice of God than the voice of a very stubborn man, which is exactly what most of this music needs. (I have to admit that the few guest vocalists don't add much - Rubin would have done better to leave them off.)
So these tunes and their arrangements range all over the emotional map. They're full of love, death, despair, cynicism and hilarity. Those are eternal subjects that synth bands also grapple with, so why not include their material?
There are those who say that Cash made "Hurt" and "Personal Jesus" sound like old country ballads, but I can't agree. They sound like Johnny Cash songs, all right, but the chordal approaches are a little too modern to sound anything like the Carter Family. Cash turns "Hurt" (which Nine Inch Nails recorded as an off-key whisper of rage and pain) into a demand for hope, and he turns "Personal Jesus" (which Depeche Mode recorded as an attack on televangelism with a shuffle beat) into a gospel tune in straight 4/4 time. We're used to thinking that this age of the world doesn't believe in anything, but Cash's version of the old music hall number "Sam Hall" is way more cynical than either one of these modern numbers, and funnier too. Apparently, this age of the world isn't quite as materialistic as we thought. Trust Johnny Cash of all people to find the faith in industrial music and the people who make it.
It's almost like Cash knew he might not have another chance to sing for us and decided to stuff it all in, but it doesn't sound stuffed - drums appear on only one cut ("Tear Stained Letter", and boy do I wish he had decided to record Richard Thompson's song of the same name), there's no bass or electric guitar at all, and the producers had the good sense to bring in a couple of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers just to make sure things stayed tasteful.
But it's Johnny Cash's show, and a phenomenal way to ring down the curtain. His wife June died shortly after "American IV: The Man Comes Around" came around, and Johnny didn't last much longer than that. I imagine that now he has answers to the questions this album raised. The rest of us are left with the questions, but that's not at all a bad thing, especially when in comes in a form like this.
Benshlomo says, When the old man asks a question, we'd do well to listen.
Listen as the Legend Gives His Life to This Final Work
2009-11-05 - This was the last studio album that was released during Cash's life. As with most prolific artists this will not be the LAST album to be released with his name on the cover. But for me this was it. You can almost hear the life escaping this man as he pours his heart and soul into these tracks. As far as I know the only original track on here is the titular "The Man Comes Around" This is a stunningly simultaneously dark and crisp narrative about "the man" an agent of God who is making the final tallies for Judgment Day.
The other tracks are all covers. I love the way he warbled through Bridge Over Troubled Water, it was epic in scope. I was surprised to find "I Hung My Head" to have originally been a David Bowie song, but Cash puts his mark on it. The rest of the tracks are not as strong as the ones above, but add to the overall mood, the feeling of finality to the work.
That is except of course for brave, vulnerable, soulful and heart wrenching cover of the Nine Inch Nails track "Hurt". This is one of those tracks that begs to be heard. Crank it all the way up to 11. This is a powerful ballad, the lyrics which Cash subtly changed to make it seem more personal. Once you have seen the video that was created for this track you can't help but picture June looking over his shoulder as he belts out this mea culpa to her and to his fans. When you realize that June had passed before this video was released it takes on a whole other-worldliness.
This album is not just for country fans, I should know, I am not a country music fan. This is an album for those who enjoy music and all the emotion that it can bring. One warning, my dad described listening to Cash on this album as "... it was like he had forgotten how to sing." I can completely see his point, but for me that is what strengthens it. It is raw. It is decidedly unpolished. And for me it was and is spectacular.
T
A testament the end we are all approaching 
2009-10-29 - Many of the reviews both negative and positive have commented on how this Johnny Cash does not sound the same as the Johnny Cash of old. I think that this is the beauty of this album. Cash sings every song on this album with emotion and feeling. There are moments in songs like Hurt and Bridge over Troubled Waters that you can almost feel the regret and pain in this man's voice. Those who criticize the lack of range and the missed harmonies miss the point. This is not an album of technically perfect songs. This is an albulm of emotion and feeling that exposes the soul of a man near the end of his life. Each song seems chosen to convey a certain feeling that Cash wished to get out before the end. Take this album for what it is, a record by a great musician who saw his end coming when he still had much to say. It may not have the same technical merit as Cash's earlier albums, but it portrays an artist putting their heart on record for all to see as they near the end.
"American IV: The Man Comes Around" is excellent!
2009-09-27 - "American IV: The Man Comes Around" is excellent! This is one of the best albums that Johnny Cash ever did. All of the tracks on here are excellent!
Track Listing:
1. The Man Comes Around
2. Hurt
3. Give My Love To Rose
4. Bridge Over Troubled Water
5. I Hung My Head
6. First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
7. Personal Jesus
8. In My Life
9. Sam Hall
10. Danny Boy
11. Desperado
12. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
13. Tear Stained Letter
14. Streets Of Laredo
15. We'll Meet Again
A Great Series of Recordings
2009-08-28 - After hearing so many people gush about the Johnny Cash /Rick Rubin American series for several years, I finally got around to giving them a listen. I started with the first one "American Recordings". The first listen was a wow moment. A few weeks later I bought the next three "Unchained", "American III: Solitary Man" and American IV: The Man Comes Around". I had a long day of data entry to do so I ended up listening to these three CDs in one sitting on head phones. Amazingly I did not get bored with them and the time just flew by.
They did everything right on this series, from song selection to what seamed like the unerring production on every track. Be it Johnny with one guitar or a full band it seamed like no mistakes were made. Cash's voice was starting fade a bit on American IV but I found it to be an apt conclusion to his story in music. All four CDs are worth having and I will get American V some time soon.
This is a very fitting swansong for Cash.
