J Money's formula runs dry

The fourth edition in Johnny Cash's collaborations with famed producer Rick Rubin belittles the whole Cash experience by making the dying singer a caricature of himself. Approach this album skeptically, the material is less than befitting -- Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus," 70's schlock-soul ballad "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," the Eagles' "Desperado," "Danny Boy," Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt," etc. Cash has always been somewhat of a one-trick pony, but it was always the combination of his words and minimalist music that resonated with fans. Guest turns and Rubin's ugly irony can't cover for the poor pre-production choices. As always though, Cash sounds saintly and superannuated. On American IV, along with his quivering bass voice, death rattles from his lungs, which suggests this may be his final statement. His reading of Sting's "I Hung My Head" is surprising, and almost worth the price of the album. In a death sentence story he's told a hundred times before, Cash howls as the gallows and judge close in, "I felt the power of death over life"