Various artists
Walk the Line - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
(Sony BMG)
If you bought the soundtrack before seeing the film about the life and rhymes of the late, great Johnny Cash, more's the pity. Whereas you might not be able to fault Joaquin Phoenix's Oscar-nominated turn as the towering Man in Black, this recording strips his efforts at tackling Cash's songs bare. And the results ain't pretty.
Without any of the movie magic that papers over the cracks, Phoenix's voice fails to deliver, mumbling along behind the playing of some of the best that the storied Sun recording studios had to offer. It comes off sounding like your neighbour singing along to his Cash collection. Heard through a wall.
Many of the finest Cash standards are here - Get Rhythm (ironic title, given the version recorded here), Ring of Fire, Folsom Prison Blues. And the whole thing is fleshed out by some marginally better efforts from Phoenix's co-star, Reese Witherspoon, who goes some way towards doing justice to two June Carter covers - Wildwood Flower and Juke Box Blues. When they come together for the duets, though, it's time to head for the hills. Bob Dylan's It Ain't Me, Babe is butchered.