Music

Coming on like a country Tupac, JC is proving to be pretty necro-prolific for a dead dude. He recorded this collection with Rick Rubin in the months before his death in September 2003, a period that encompassed the death of June as well as his own continuing deterioration. If you found ‘Hurt’ a little poignant, you might want to give this a clear steer: every song touches on God and death, including ‘Like The 309’, the last song Cash wrote.

Subject matter aside, though, there’s nothing among this collection of originals and covers (Gordon Lightfoot, Hank Williams, Bruce Springsteen and Don Gibson) to match ‘Hurt’ for originality of interpretation or emotional punch, and at times it’s downright dreary, sounding as if a catatonic Cash has been locked in the studio and prodded with sharp sticks to get him to sing. (And while we’re defying the Cash beatification society can I add that ‘Walk The Line’ was all well and good, but wouldn’t you have rather seen a film about the time he fought an ostrich?) Perhaps we should be grateful that the physical and emotional pain Cash was obviously experiencing doesn’t quite translate, and simply appreciate this for its spirit of defiance, truculence and dogged determination to face down the inevitable.