Johnny Cash’s legacy is so powerful that he still speaks to us from the grave! This fact makes the opening lyrics of this affair all the more hauntingly true – ‘there aint no grave that can hold my body down.’ These are words that only The Man in Black can deliver convincingly and they set the tone for the rest of the album. The following nine songs slowly unfold like a crumpled piece of paper. Each song is driven by delicate guitar parts and there's hardly any beat to tap to your foot to.
Producer Rick Rubin says he has no material left to release so its a safe bet that this is the last Johnny Cash release that will see the light of day. It follows the preceding ‘American’ albums appropriately in the sense that you won’t hear another ‘Walk the Line.’ Instead, Cash and Rubin deliver some of the saddest yet uplifting music in years.
‘For the Good Times’ opens with the weathered Cash singing ‘don’t look so sad, I know it’s over/but life goes on and this whole world will keep on turning/let’s just be glad we had some time to spend together.’ Simple, sure, but so powerfully true. What better way to look at death than to look at the life that led up to it.
This darkness overshadows the album in almost all of the songs. In ‘Satisfied Mind,’ Cash shares his feelings of being at peace with himself as he sings ‘there’s one thing for certain/when it comes my time/I’ll leave this world with a satisfied mind.’ It sounds like Cash had already resigned himself to this set of songs being his last. He doesn’t admit sad defeat but instead expresses a certain satisfaction about the life he led.
This album won’t won’t fit in at a party between the Beastie Boys and Motley Crue. It will fit nicely during an evening at home when you are able to hear the words you wanted all your loved ones to tell you while they were on their death beds.
7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment