"The Beast in Me"

Johnny Cash
(American Recordings, 1994)

It never occurred to me that anyone other than the Man in Black could've written this until the song showed up on an episode of The Sopranos in a version by its author, Nick Lowe. Because on American Recordings Cash doesn't sing the song so much as wear it like skin, wrinkles and all, tracing its creases and scars with that humble and frightening baritone, as one whose flesh is but a vessel for his own worst enemy.

-- Carly Carioli