Music
All-Time High (And Low) Scores
Best of 2009
Best of 2008
Best of 2007
Best of 2006
Best of 2005
Best of 2004
Best of 2003
Best of 2002
Best of 2001
Best of 2000
Best of the Decade
Upcoming &
Recent Releases
75
Alberta Cross
70
The Album Leaf
69
Alkaline Trio
66
Animal Collective
50
Athlete
82
Beach House
81
The Besnard Lakes
75
Kasper Bjorke
65
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
64
Dan Black
75
Mary J. Blige
75
Blockhead
79
Blood Red Shoes
70
David Bowie
64
The Brian Jonestown Massacre
70
Broken Bells
65
V.V. Brown
72
The Brunettes
71
Basia Bulat
78
Carolina Chocolate Drops
79
Johnny Cash
79
Chew Lips
82
Chicago Underground Duo
79
The Chieftains Featuring Ry Cooder
76
Citay
66
Clem Snide
77
Clipd Beaks
78
Clogs
66
Cold War Kids
75
Easton Corbin
80
Crazy Heart
90
Crime In Stereo
70
Jamie Cullum
63
Fyfe Dangerfield
72
Delphic
89
The Dillinger Escape Plan
64
Dinowalrus
77
Drive-By Truckers
59
Editors
71
Eels
74
Efterklang
83
Eluvium
82
Erland And The Carnival
57
Everybody Was In The French Resistance...Now
63
Excepter
78
Field Music
76
First Aid Kit
68
Josephine Foster
82
Four Tet
71
Nils Frahm
77
Freeway & Jake One
75
Frightened Rabbit
82
Fucked Up
64
Peter Gabriel
79
Charlotte Gainsbourg
80
Galactic
67
The Gilded Palace Of Sin
73
Ernest Gonzales
59
Good Shoes
79
Gorillaz
70
Adam Green
79
Patty Griffin
76
Groove Armada
67
H.I.M.
43
Hadouken!
73
Harvey Milk
68
Juliana Hatfield
67
Jimi Hendrix
88
High On Fire
80
Hot Chip
66
The Hot Rats
88
Ray Wylie Hubbard
54
Hurricane Chris
76
Jaga Jazzist
76
Jaheim
68
jj
79
Freedy Johnston
54
Nick Jonas And The Administration
57
Ke$ha
74
The Knife In Collaboration With Mt. Sims And Planningtorock
63
Lady Antebellum
65
Dawn Landes
82
Lawrence Arabia
74
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
82
Liars
72
Lightspeed Champion
37
Lil Wayne
82
Lindstrom & Christabelle
68
Little Boots
78
Local Natives
75
Los Campesinos!
67
Lostprophets
65
Ludacris
72
Magnetic Fields
74
Massive Attack
58
Katherine McPhee
60
Tom McRae
66
Daniel Merriweather
76
Pat Metheny
72
Midlake
64
Holly Miranda
79
Allison Moorer
83
Motion City Soundtrack
53
Mudvayne
65
Mumford & Sons
55
Never Shout Never
85
Joanna Newsom
81
Scout Niblett
76
Nneka
75
Oh No Ono
70
OK Go
71
Omarion
77
Owen Pallett
84
Pantha du Prince
77
Past Lives
84
Pavement
77
Phantogram
65
Pit Er Pat
86
Polar Bear
64
Priestess
69
Quasi
77
Corinne Bailey Rae
71
The Red Krayola With Art & Language
81
Fionn Regan
77
Retribution Gospel Choir
57
Martin Rev
64
Rjd2
63
Rogue Wave
82
Jack Rose
77
The Ruby Suns
78
Sade
77
Gil Scott-Heron
80
She & Him
77
Shearwater
69
Blake Shelton
84
Shining
68
Shout Out Louds
80
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band
75
The Soft Pack
80
Spoon
63
Ringo Starr
68
Story Of The Year
71
The Strange Boys
74
Strong Arm Steady
78
Surfer Blood
60
Tape Deck Mountain
82
These New Puritans
76
Tindersticks
82
Titus Andronicus
72
Toro Y Moi
63
Josh Turner
81
Vampire Weekend
79
Laura Veirs
69
Via Audio
79
Butch Walker And The Black Widows
59
The Watson Twins
69
We Are Wolves
66
Kanye West
64
Wetdog
51
The Whigs
67
White Hills
79
The White Stripes
72
The Whitefield Brothers
68
Wu-Tang Clan
75
Xiu Xiu
78
Yeasayer
77
You Say Party! We Say Die!
63
Young Money
61
Rob Zombie
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
American III: Solitary Man
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 15 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Sony
Release Date: 17 October 2000
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Rock, Country
Summary
In his sixth decade of recording, Johnny Cash reunites with producer Rick Rubin for a third consecutive outing. Like its two predecessors, 'III' consists of a mix of Cash originals and covers, this time from the likes of Nick Cave ("The Mercy Seat"), Tom Petty ("I Won't Back Down"), and U2 ("One").
Also By This Artist: American IV: The Man Comes Around American V: A Hundred Highways
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment Weekly
Though the Man in Black has rarely sounded blacker, producer Rick Rubin frames that deep sea voice with harmonies and churchly organs, making for a dark angel beauty of an album that's austere but welcoming.
Read Full Review >Sonicnet
When a tune falls into the jurisdiction of the venerable country-folk troubadour, the accumulated details of any previous readings or associations are stripped away, and its core brilliantly revealed.
Read Full Review >Billboard
"Solitary Man" may lack the immediate impact of its predecessors but is no less a masterpiece.
Read Full Review >Mojo
Greying at the edges, its tremor more pronounced, his voice is sober, honest, defiant. And it turns rock songs into something that sounds as old as the hills.
Read Full Review >Splendid
Though the covers on American III will attract the majority of listener attention, Cash’s own material steals the show.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
While some critics take issue with Rubin's underproduction, none of the songs on American III require ornate instrumentation. Whether they've been fluffed up or stripped raw, at the core of each is a compelling statement from one of our greatest humanists.
Read Full Review >HOB.com
So at 68 he's still able to churn out songs that are immediately likable, if not instantly classic. For a man who's seemingly suffered from every ailment imaginable in the past few years, his signature baritone remains as strong and expressive as ever, too.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
All in all, as resonant and dignified a covers album as you'll ever hear.
Read Full Review >Wall of Sound
If one wanted to quibble, one could say that the Cash-Rubin collaboration is starting to feel just a little formulaic.... yet Cash continually surprises with his ability to completely inhabit material by writers much younger than him.
Read Full Review >Neumu.net
Mostly downbeat, the album feels, at times, as if it were created beneath a black cloud.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
The onus here lies on the production... Rick Rubin's work is too timid; mostly, the shy combos of guitar, fiddle and accordion, or Benmont Tench's subliminal contributions on keyboards, make up the kind of severe meal that one is forced to think of as "tasteful."
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
Like Neil Young's Silver And Gold, it feels like a thematically empty, knockabout place-holder. American Recordings, one of Cash's towering classics, was all devotion and doubt, a brilliant, raw-boned meditation on redemption and death. A loose, flat set of odds and ends, Solitary Man is merely a minor but endearing record from a man who seems to know he's given more than enough.
Read Full Review >Spin Cycle
The results on "Solitary Man" are mixed, leaning at times to inadvertent novelty.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
Like his two previous studio albums, Solitary Man is sparsely produced by Rick Rubin, and continues the themes of love, faith, and loneliness that their previous collaborations have chillingly embraced.
Read Full Review >L.A. Weekly
I'm assuming the problems began when Rubin presented Cash with a cache of songs to choose from. From there, Rubin's production only makes a bad situation worse, putting Cash's dusty, reverbless voice -- which is beginning to show its frailties -- unnaturally in your face.... But if you can wade through the chaff, it's Cash's originals that save the disc.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Cabe M gave it a10:
Johnny to me will always be my favorite country artist simply because of masterpieces like this. Hands down i give it a ten!
Malice angst gave it a 10:
I listen to this album all the time. Johnny can take any song and make it his own.
