Johnny CashAmerican V: A Hundred Highways

Cash staring death in the eye, voice cracked and worn down to bare wood. "God's Gonna Cut You Down" is a folk-gospel stomper, hand claps and a thundering vocal that became a hit single. "Like the 309" is the last song he ever wrote, rattling along about dying on a train. Springsteen's "Further On (Up the Road)" aches with finality in his trembling delivery. His first posthumous American album, and the fragility lends it an unbearable weight. Quiet, devastating, and impossible to shake.