Johnny Cash – American IV: The Man Comes Around

Gave it an ultrasonic clean. Picked up at Barnes and Noble. Flat ...no skips, quiet noisefloor. Been wanting this forever and figured nownwas the time as OGs are too $ . Really happy and sounds great. PLAYED ON vintage Sansui rig/Orto Blue needle/Adcom Amps/Halford 800 Towers.

The sound of this version is unbelievable. I had another vinyl version to compare, non-CB cutting (the vinyl tracks are visually different), an although the sound is always excellent, it is my conviction that this 2014 wins the sound battle. Once this issue was settled, one can than go into the performances of Mr Cash, which are nothing but spectacular and wonderful. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face did not bring tears to my eyes because I did let them to win.

The 2022 reissue does not have CB in the deadwax.The barcode is the same as the 2014 edition but the metalwork is not.

Beautiful album with crystal clear vocals, a very quite pressing with minimal surface noise. A must have!

The quality of the record itself and the sound is fantastic. It is so hard to listed to. His voice was just amazing and it was so vulnerable later on. I always say his best songs were later on in his life.

The vocals are front and center and on display here, and that’s what matters with this Johnny Cash acoustic album. The vocals sound like they are in the room. The stereo effect is very prominent with multiple acoustic guitars on several songs. The piano is kinda buried in the mix but again, its the voice that matters most here. Quality sounding cd and great tunes.

devastating (formats, on CD, as well as the vinyl (2XLP).

Despite his evident physical weakness, Cash wanted to continue the American Recording series and working with his friend Rick Rubin.

“The Man Comes Around” is the 4th instalment of Cash’s monumental swansong, and keeps the same structure that granted all the previous volumes their personality: Johnny goes through both some of his own compositions and also have a go to some covers from other songwriters or popular compositions, arranging them to his style and vision.

Also, he again gets help from other musicians and, to me, the highlights here are the duets with Fiona Apple and Nick Cave in Paul Simon’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonely I Could Cry”, respectively.

The whole tracklist is amazing, and you even get your share of unlike covers such as Sting’s “I Hung My Head” or Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” that are completely made new by Cash.

Still, I believe there are two indisputable winning songs in this album.

First, there’s the opening title song. A song that took Cash around 4 months to complete (in his own words “I spent more time in this song than any I ever wrote”) and that could be his last songwriting masterpiece, where he pours all his lifelong mysticism into the biblical lyrics of an incredible dark, doomed intensity and his view on Armageddon. The true musical testament of a deeply Christian songwriter, whose religious beliefs were growing stronger as he was losing his vital strength.

Then, of course, there’s Trent Reznor’s “Hurt”. The song that gave the whole American Recordings series a huge commercial push reaching people that never had listened to either Cash or Reznor, where Cash is doing magic here once again by taking Reznor’s song and making it his own to a level never seen before though a hypnotizing crescendo, almost unbearable in its intensity, while his breaking voice goes through Reznror’s dark lyrics.
If you are not moved by this rendition, you should check out you are still alive and breathing.

Damn, this sounds great.Cash's vocals really cut through. Great separation of instruments. No technical surface issues.

Great album and quality. This is one vinyl that has to come in black!