The Man Comes Around , is volume four in the series and finds Cash in an ominous mood as he sings of love, betrayal, addiction and murder. As ever, Rubin keeps the production sparse with Cash's voice and acoustic guitar upfront and accompaniment from a few select musicians. For this album Cash has written his first new song (the album's title track) in years. For the rest, he sings songs from a variety of sources – who else could get away with Hank Williams, Sting and Depeche Mode on the same album? No one but JC. “We watch our flanks,” says Cash of his work with Rubin. “We record our stuff and have whoever we want to on the record – and we take no prisoners. We do it the way we want to.” Cash is country music's greatest icon, yet The Man Comes Around has set its sights beyond Cash's country fan base to create an album that will appeal to any intelligent music lover. American storytelling rarely gets more intense than this.