Johnny Cash, “American VI: Ain’t No Grave”(American)
Today would have been country renegade Johnny Cash’s 78th birthday. Megaproducer Rick Rubin marks that with the release of the final installment in the American Recordings Album Series, which has given us Cash covers of Nine Inch Nails (“Hurt”), the Eagles (“Desperado”), Leonard Cohen (“Bird on a Wire”) and others.
Like the previous five records in the series, this one focuses on issues of mortality — but this time with an emphasis on saying goodbye. A never-before-heard Cash original, “I Corinthians 15:55,” is one of the heaviest songs on the record, asking the question, “O, Death, where is thy sting?” “Ain’t No Grave” is a dark-and-tough death ballad that gets a lift via banjo and footstomp work from Scott and Seth Avett.
The tone was intended. The CD’s final song, “Aloha Oe,” is the all-too-familiar Hawaiian song of farewell. It’s an obvious trick, yes, and the bright, melodic track doesn’t really fit the album’s general aesthetic. But Cash always did things on his own terms, and fans wouldn’t find it surprising if he planned this, his grand farewell, well before his passing. Ricardo Baca
Charlotte Gainsbourg, “IRM” (Elektra)
French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg is best known as the daughter of legendary musician Serge Gainsbourg, but she’s also an accomplished singer with pitch-perfect instincts.
On her third album, “IRM,” she continues her string of inspired collaborators by enlisting the similarly weird, shape- shifting Beck to frame and display her vulnerable vocals.
“Master’s Hands” is the thin, vaguely Eastern and otherwise forgettable tune that kicks off the album, but don’t judge it solely by that. The disc is essentially a lighter, less funky version of Beck’s “The Information,” and as a result it drips with textured, carefully arranged songs shot through with aching melodies and propulsive beats.
The mood veers from breezy, charming and quasi-orchestral (see the lovely “Time of the Assassins”) to hip-shaking (“Looking Glass Blues,” “Trick Pony”), but never gets bogged down in self-indulgence or pretension. This is a straight-up pop album in the truest sense of the phrase — and a welcome one, at that. John Wenzel
Quasi, “American Gong” (Kill Rock Stars)
Quasi’s members are noted more for their side work — drummer Janet Weiss used to drive influential rockers Sleater-Kinney, and singer-guitarist Sam Coomes played with late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith — but as a duo they craft tight, sugary chunks of pop-rock.
Thorny and newly bass-heavy with the addition of the Jicks’ Joanna Bolme, “American Gong” is a testament to the band’s relevance and spark. Granted, there’s nothing here as immediately catchy as classic Quasi songs “Tomorrow You’ll Hide” or “All the Same,” but Coomes’ wailing guitar and Weiss’ reliably fun, thunderous drumming make songs like “Little White Horse” feel as fresh as when the band first emerged in the early-to-mid ’90s.
John Wenzel
