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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
American IV: The Man Comes Around
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 31 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Universal
Release Date: 05 November 2002
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Country, Rock
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's "Bridge Over Troubled Water." Fiona Apple, Nick Cave, and Don Henley are among the guests.
Also By This Artist: American III: Solitary Man 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...
Village Voice (Consumer Guide)
The selection here is at once so obvious and so inappropriate it feels redemptive.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
Cash has once again seen that white light--yet resisted its allure--and written an apocalyptic title track and put his stamp on an eclectic batch of material. [8 Nov 2002, p.106]
Mojo
If this is to be Cash's last album, then what a magnificent way he has chosen to say goodbye. [Album of the Month, Dec 2002, p.100]
Uncut
May be the most consistent of the four albums to date. [Jan 2003, p.122]
Flak Magazine
Regardless of whether Cash completes another album, this chapter of the American Recordings can fill the role of masterful final episode or precursor to the stunning conclusion.
Read Full Review >Stylus Magazine
The inferior quality of the covers belies the excellence of American IV’s originals.
Read Full Review >Neumu.net
Cash might surprise with his choice of covers, but in nearly all of his selections, he locates some personal meaning, or introduces new emotional elements.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
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.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
Cash's renditions are often breathtaking in their simplicity, but rarely do they justify their presence among a dozen other similarly afflicted songs.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Cover versions that once seemed inspired now feel somewhat obligatory.
Read Full Review >Blender
His blunt, hauntingly direct performances open up new perspectives on a song. [#11, p.133]
All Music Guide
It is a relief to hear that although Cash's voice is clearly older and not the booming powerhouse it was in the earlier Sun and Columbia days, he's still got some punch left in him.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
The only top notch effort is the title track--Cash's first composition for years and among the best he's ever written. [Jan 2003, p.114]
Austin Chronicle
Cash's voice has always had its limitations, and on "Danny Boy" and the Beatles' "In My Life," they're all too apparent.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 31 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Dylan B. gave it a10:
Beautiful. One of the best albums I have ever bought.
Brian C gave it a9:
From electrified to devestated to heartsick to tearstained, this album took me on a tour through my heart down the path less taken. I still come out of it crying, often without making it all the way through the album. The first time I encountered his cover- i was speechless, on the floor, in tears. The spirit of the original song became a counterpoint to a different side of my heart, and connected two different feelings. Though not the most artfully constructed album i have experienced, it remains a powerful work that moves me with terrible ease. That makes it great in my book.
Dee C gave it a10:
It moves me...it touches my heart like poetry...Although a fan of his Sun Record material, this in some ways seems a more important work. Thanks to Rick Rubin for taking a chance him.
brent gave it a10:
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.
Barney R gave it a10:
This is a beautiful and gripping album from start to finish. This turned out to be Johnny Cash's last and appropriately enough it's an introspective look back at his life and the end of the trail ahead.
P G gave it a10:
Very powerful. Hurt is just fantastic. I don't understand some of the negative professional reviews. My family just died. The last few years visting in the nursing home were brutal. I think this album is as truthful as it gets.
John W. gave it a10:
A lot of the "professional" reviewers don't understand the song selections. All you have to do is look at where he was in life when he did the album; his wife had recently passed, he was near the end of an extended illness, and it all makes sense, at least to me. He is singing to/for his wife, for himself, for others he misses and perhaps expects to meet again quite soon. This is the only album of his where I truly enjoy and am moved by each and every song.
