Unchained

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
The first four songs on Unchained come from the songbooks of Beck, Don Gibson, Soundgarden, and Jimmie Rodgers. What might look like absurdly unsupportable eclecticism in other artists, of course, is pretty much standard stuff for Cash. Unchained is hardly standard, though; it's more like the best album he's made since his 1984 departure from Columbia Records. Not only is this a stack of songs perfectly and idiosyncratically suited to the man, they're given door-rattling backing treatment by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, who prove as fitting for Cash's music as his own Tennessee Two were. --Rickey Wright

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Customer reviews

review by: brunssum date: 2008-03-19 rating:
So much energy
This is a brilliant selection of songs by Johnny Cash and for a man in the twilight of his years there is just so much energy and sheer joy of music making coming through on this album. Just play 'Country Boy' to see what I mean and to confirm what a great idea it was to get Tom Petty et al to back the great man, who's voice still sounds so strong.
Don Gibsons 'Sea of Heartbreak' was a favourite of mine when I was at school and its so good to hear it again. The Carter families 'The kneeling drunkards plea' drives along at a great pace and 'Meet me in heaven' is just so moving to those of us who have loved Johnny and June over the years and can imagine them walking those streets of gold. What a shame their last song has been sung.
Excluding Bitter Tears and the prison sessions there aren't many better albums on which to listen to the wonderful timbre of that voice on a very well chosen selection of songs.

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review by: date: 2006-08-13 rating:
Best of the 'American Recordings'?
This is my favorite of the first three American Recordings I have thus far. 'Rusty Cage' is among the top three songs Cash ever did (in my opinion), along with 'Folsom Prison Blues' and 'The Mercy Seat' from 'Solitary Man'. 'Sea of Heartbreak' and the title track are only a hair behind, and every song on the album is strong.

The most amazing thing about Cash's career isn't that he lasted virtually 50 years. It is that he went out on the top of his form. In earlier years Cash did some excellent work (his live albums from Folsom and San Quentin prisons were powerful works). But on these final albums Cash has something to say and limited time to say it - and he knows it. His health is going bad, he can't tour any more - so he pours it all out on these records. Like an aging and caged nightingale. Or a 'Bird on a Wire'.

The only artist I could compare to Cash for length of career and creativity would be Frank Sinatra - but unlike Cash Sinatra did not go out at his peak. Far from it.

Cash did. Buy it.

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review by: date: 2006-04-04 rating:
Dark, raw and personal
Superb album from his later years. Dark powerful voice with words and emotion that touch whoever listens to it.

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review by: date: 2003-09-17 rating:
Another fine American Recordings set
‘Unchained’ is the second in the series of Johnny Cash’s American Recordings. On the first album, Cash stuck to fairly traditional fare, performing a set of mostly his own material, and a couple of tracks by his contemporaries like Loudon Wainwright III, Kris Kristofferson and Leonard Cohen. Here Cash’s (and we can only assume Rubin’s) choices are far more eclectic. The set list contains works by the likes of Soundgarden, Beck and Tom Petty. Guest spots by artists as diverse as Mick Fleetwood, The Heartbreakers and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea also make this LP more of an assortment than the first offering.

Each of the ‘American’ albums is characterised by Cash’s peerless ability to make each song that he tackles his own. As is the case on each of the American albums, Cash’s own life story and experience add gravity and pathos to lines that seemed almost throwaway when sung by the original artists. This is most poignant, when Cash sings, “Give me some alcohol” on ‘Rowboat’, and later when he brings equal helpings of spirituality and savoir-faire to Soundgarden’s ‘Rusty Cage’.

It isn’t just so-called ‘alternative’ songs that Cash performs on ‘Unchained’ though. He takes Dean Martin’s corny-as-hell ‘Memories Are Made Of This’ and adds a depth that even a singer as talented as Martin couldn’t manage. Later he performs an exquisite version of Tom Petty’s ‘South Accents’. On Jimmie Rodgers’ ‘The One Rose (That’s Left In My Heart)’ and ‘The Kneeling Drunkard’s Plea’ (originally performed by The Louvin Brothers but written by June, Helen and Anita Carter) things really snap into place between Cash and The Heartbreakers making these two of the stand out tracks.

Two re-works of Cash’s own songs are also highlights. ‘Meet Me In Heaven’, which was originally written for June Carter Cash takes on greater significance now that both she and Cash have passed away. Cash estimates that it took him forty years to write ‘Mean Eyed Cat’. In the liner notes he remarks that any version heard until now cannot be viewed as the finished article, “finally, after 41 years, I’m satisfied with ‘Mean Eyed Cat’” notes Cash.

At the conclusion of the album lies Hank Snow’s tongue-twisting road-dog song, ‘I’ve Been Everywhere’. As Cash powers into the chorus, you could sense that he wasn’t done racking up the miles. Sadly, he didn’t have as many left as we all would’ve liked.


review by: date: 2003-09-09 rating:
Black Gold
Cash continues to stir his heady cocktail of love, death, crime, religion and heartbreak (to name a few), serving up his unique style of music, as much rock, folk, and blues as country. Cash's American Recordings with Rick Rubin are among his finest work, solidifying his unique place in the musical firmament in the autumn of his years.

Funny, bleak, thrilling and heartbreaking - this is classic Cash, and in 'Spiritual' and 'Unchained' alone he creates two uniquely beautiful and moving recordings, that can without embarrassment be described as inspirational.

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