Summary:Johnny Cash, still going strong at age 70, returns for a fourth album with producer Rick Rubin. Like the previous three pairings, this disc mixes Cash originals with unlikely covers, which this time out include Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus," Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt," and Simon & Garfunkel'sJohnny Cash, still going strong at age 70, returns for a fourth album with producer Rick Rubin. Like the previous three pairings, this disc mixes Cash originals with unlikely covers, which this time out include Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus," Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt," and Simon & Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water." Fiona Apple, Nick Cave, and Don Henley are among the guests.…Collapse
I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill...
Ultimately, Cash is the type of musician that you'd like to hear take a shot at each of your favorite songs. So it's hard to fault him for the covers on this album that don't quite work.
Every song hits the mark, it feels like Cash is singing some songs he's been singing his whole life, some songs he's singing for the firstEvery song hits the mark, it feels like Cash is singing some songs he's been singing his whole life, some songs he's singing for the first time, and some songs he hasn't sung in over 40 years.…Expand
I'm 40. The 70's raw reckless experimentalism is dead. The wonderful 80's started a new path of sound but was ultimately I'm 40. The 70's raw reckless experimentalism is dead. The wonderful 80's started a new path of sound but was ultimately killed by its record companies and resultant overkill redundancies. The ninieties stood as 10 long years of everything-you've-heard-before-rehashed and a decade of music that will be forgotten forever. This decade will be known as the one true decade of musical fusion. To wit: You get these really old crazy bastards who did their own thing year in and year out, regardless if they were fat or starving depending on the market. They just didn't care. They just wanted the hard career road of doing what they pleased. The ultimate F-You. Neil Young, Bob Dylan, and especially Lou Reed..but before you can count out the 4th commercial-free iconoclast, here comes Johnny Cash. He dropped off the radar before Rick Rubin groveled at him in '93. We are all lucky Rubin did. Who would of thought that Rubin's proposition to Cash would change everything? "I want to sign you to my label. You can sing anything you want, just you and your guitar." Good, God. And you are the luckiest man in the universe to have a monster like Cash look at you and say, "OK." American IV is a knowing swan song. Is every song about The End? Yes. He knew it. He burned a decade with Rubin showing he was the badass of badasses, but with IV, he sang it like it was his last. He said so in the liner notes. People will go on and on about the devastating version of a the devastating NIN song "Hurt," but for me the THINGS I KEEP COMING BACK TO ARE: Sting's straightforward "I Hung My Head," Cash's "The Man Comes Around," Cash' "Sam Hall, the Eagle's "Desperado", and the beautiful treatment of tear-jerker "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." I grew up with a dad and mom who loved Elvis, Neil Diamond, Waylon, Willie, and Johnny Cash. I did not get reintroduced 'til "Delia's Gone." in '93. I used to laugh uncomfortably when my uncle---a die hard Johnny fan--would say "a Dylan song? You're full of shit, Brent. That's a Johnny song." Now I understand.…Expand
Johnny Cash and his "American" project is a good test of the concept "Is it the song or the singer?". The argument being if a song is aJohnny Cash and his "American" project is a good test of the concept "Is it the song or the singer?". The argument being if a song is a classic, it's very hard to mess it up. Cash can never be accused of messing up the songs he covers here and as I said about American III, it could be argued he brings the sheer quality of some of these songs into sharp focus with his stripped down versions. With all studio trickery and effects stripped away, often all your left with are the lyrics and the chords. American IV is my personal favourite of the series with almost every track warranting it's place on the record. The inclusion of "Hurt" and "I Hung My Head" give the record an extra dose of class but this really works as an overall album. Probably the best country style album I've heard and definitely the best one I own. It's the one that brough him to a new generation of youth while he himself was in the departure loung of life.…Expand
This album makes my skin crawl! Our local public radio station, WDET, played it from start to finish. I listened in utter amazement that This album makes my skin crawl! Our local public radio station, WDET, played it from start to finish. I listened in utter amazement that something so horrible would be played on such a normally intuitive radio station. I see, I am in the minority here, but listen to the album! I subject my wife to a lot of hard-to-warm-up-to musicians, Dylan, Chris Smither, Lead Belly, Tom Waits, etc, but even I cannot swallow this! Ugh!…Expand
