Johnny Cash: Unchained

Listening to Unchained, and reading Johnny Cash's liner notes, you can't help but get the feeling that Cash is preparing his own epitaph: The album is full of closure, from a song named for the phrase on his brother's tombstone ("Meet Me In Heaven") to a song he'd left unfinished 41 years ago ("Mean Eyed Cat"). And like its monumental predecessor, American Recordings, much of the album revolves around recurring themes of spirituality and redemption. Cash's brilliant legacy firmly intact, Unchained seems to exist mostly to tie personal loose ends, and it gives numerous recording artists the opportunity to record with him while they have the chance. (Among the players: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Mick Fleetwood, Flea and Lindsay Buckingham.) The musicians actually dilute the emotional impact of Cash's music—there's little need for elaborate augmentation behind that deep, weathered voice, as American Recordings proved—but the album is still excellent. His voice sounds marvelous throughout, whether he's reinventing songs by Beck and Soundgarden (just as he reinvented songs by Danzig and Tom Waits on his last record), crooning gorgeous hymns, or celebrating a simple life that revolves around women, work and hard living. Unchained is an exceptional document; here's hoping Cash sticks around to make a whole bunch more.