Here’s an album that is a must-have in these darkish days: Johnny’ Cash’s brand new American IV: The Man Comes Around.
A number of the songs are originals, like the beautiful first one entitled “The Man Comes Around,” but he does some of the most powerful covers I’ve heard, including NIN’s painful “Hurt” and the Beatles’ troubled “In My Life.” These are sad, despairing songs breathed through the dying lungs of perhaps the most truly romantic, dystopian singer “Around.”