If you thought that the well of Johnny Cash-Rick Rubin recordings must have been left dry after the posthumous release of the Unearthed box set in 2003, and of American V: A Hundred Highways three years later, think again.

Drawn from the same sessions as the latter of those two releases, American VI basically offers more of the same, as a croaky Cash rumbles his way through ten songs (nine covers, one Cash-penned biblical adaptation) against an understated, Rubin-produced backdrop.

As posthumous albums go, American VI is several cuts above the norm; Cash’s ever-present charisma and Rubin’s empathetic production see to that.

But while these tunes are all getting their first release, there’s little here fans won’t already have heard, and the Cash catalogue ultimately isn’t noticeably improved by yet another album of death’s-door recordings of songs that allude to the great unknown.

3/5

WILL FULFORD-JONES