Music
All-Time High (And Low) Scores
Best Of 2009
Best Of 2008
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
Best Of 2003
Best Of 2002
Best Of 2001
Best Of 2000
Upcoming &
Recent Releases
70
AFI
65
Air
71
Alice In Chains
77
Amerie
85
The Antlers
75
Arctic Monkeys
68
As Tall As Lions
82
Atlas Sound
75
The Avett Brothers
67
Backstreet Boys
56
Bad Lieutenant
68
Devendra Banhart
72
Lou Barlow
88
Baroness
69
Basement Jaxx
81
David Bazan
72
Brendan Benson
72
The Big Pink
96
Big Star
46
Billy Talent
75
The Black Crowes
51
Black Mold
68
Blitzen Trapper
75
BLK JKS
77
A.A. Bondy
73
The Bottle Rockets
63
Box Elders
65
Boys Like Girls
76
Brand New
73
Tyondai Braxton
87
Brother Ali
70
Ian Brown
75
Michael Buble
78
Built To Spill
61
Colbie Caillat
79
Califone
68
Mariah Carey
84
Brandi Carlile
73
Julian Casablancas
83
Rosanne Cash
69
Castanets
65
The Cave Singers
84
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis
79
Vic Chesnutt
75
Choir Of Young Believers
81
Circulatory System
68
The Clean
84
The Clientele
71
Cobra Starship
85
Converge
71
Eric Copeland
80
Cymbals Eat Guitars
71
Datarock
59
Dead By Sunrise
76
Dead Man's Bones
88
Destroyer
63
The Dodos
77
Drive-By Truckers
66
Bob Dylan
44
The Entrance Band
67
Esser
69
Fanfarlo
63
Felix Da Housecat
68
Fink
78
The Flaming Lips
66
Flight Of The Conchords
79
Florence And The Machine
67
John Fogerty
83
Fuck Buttons
71
Nelly Furtado
47
Gary Go
68
Ghostface Killah
79
Girls
69
Gossip
62
David Gray
66
David Guetta
79
Richard Hawley
74
Mayer Hawthorne
66
Headlights
79
HEALTH
77
Joe Henry
66
Hockey
69
Whitney Houston
68
Imogen Heap
59
Jack Ingram
79
Islands
73
Jessie James
74
Jamie T
65
Jay-Z
51
Jet
69
Daniel Johnston
76
Karen O And The Kids
72
Toby Keith
69
Kid Cudi
65
Kings Of Convenience
62
Sean Kingston
64
KISS
76
Kris Kristofferson
68
KRS-One & Buckshot
76
La Roux
84
Miranda Lambert
72
Ledisi
75
Sondre Lerche
56
Juliette Lewis
82
Lightning Bolt
73
Little Dragon
44
Pixie Lott
73
Lyle Lovett
66
Lovvers
75
Baaba Maal
77
Madness
84
Madonna
85
Manic Street Preachers
62
Maps
55
Massive Attack
57
Matisyahu
67
Reba McEntire
66
Tim McGraw
65
Brian McKnight
79
Mew
77
Malcolm Middleton
77
Mika
68
Amy Millan
76
Mission Of Burma
76
Molina And Johnson
80
Monsters Of Folk
62
Morrissey
85
Mount Eerie
78
The Mountain Goats
62
Múm
72
Muse
66
Willie Nelson
78
Nirvana
97
Nirvana
72
Nisennenmondai
80
No Age
71
Noah And The Whale
75
Noisettes
79
Nudge
47
Dolores O'Riordan
74
Os Mutantes
73
Osso
81
Owen
76
Paramore
76
Pastels And Tenniscoats
51
Sean Paul
80
Pearl Jam
66
Jemina Pearl
72
Jack Penate
65
Phish
82
Pissed Jeans
61
Pitbull
79
A Place To Bury Strangers
66
Robert Pollard
79
Polvo
72
Porcupine Tree
80
Q-Tip
80
R.E.M.
89
Raekwon
69
Rain Machine
70
Ramona Falls
75
Dizzee Rascal
75
The Raveonettes
76
Jay Reatard
82
Reigning Sound
81
Rodrigo Y Gabriela
79
Russian Circles
69
Buffy Sainte-Marie
73
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions
61
Sally Shapiro
78
Shudder To Think
70
Simian Mobile Disco
58
Simple Minds
72
Six Organs Of Admittance
69
Slaughterhouse
80
Slayer
61
The Slits
62
Mindy Smith
78
Soulsavers
77
Speech Debelle
58
Spiral Stairs
58
Squarepusher
55
Steel Panther
73
Sufjan Stevens
52
Rod Stewart
65
Joss Stone
75
George Strait
83
Barbra Streisand
76
A Sunny Day In Glasgow
74
Susanna And The Magical Orchestra
78
The Swell Season
76
David Sylvian
83
Taken By Trees
78
Tegan And Sara
68
The Temper Trap
72
Themselves
82
They Might Be Giants
67
Third Eye Blind
66
J Tillman
69
Times New Viking
57
Tokio Hotel
67
Trey Songz
71
The Twilight Sad
58
Carrie Underwood
56
The Used
68
Various Artists
70
Various Artists
74
Various Artists
77
The Very Best
71
Kurt Vile
67
Vivian Girls
71
Volcano Choir
76
Rufus Wainwright
59
Weezer
80
White Denim
76
Why?
83
Wild Beasts
80
Wildbirds & Peacedrums
59
Andrew W.K.
71
Patrick Wolf
67
Wolfmother
84
The xx
79
Yo La Tengo
83
Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band
51
Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
59
Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Show Me Your Tears
EMAILPRINTby Frank Black & The Catholics
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 22 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Spin Art
Release Date: 09 September 2003
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Summary
He's nothing if not prolific. Black's fourth album in two and a half years features 13 new tracks and appearances from some of his usual cohorts (Stan Ridgway, Joey Santiago).
Also By This Artist: Black Letter Days Devil's Workshop Dog In The Sand
Also On Metacritic
MUSIC: Frank Black: Fast Man Raider Man Frank Black: Frank Black Francis Frank Black: Honeycomb
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Splendid
This is not a happy album, but it might be a great one, taking the Western swagger of Dog in the Sand into bleak and stunning territory.
Read Full Review >Billboard
Populated with high, lonesome soundscapes that condense the Americana epics of last year's "Black Letter Days" into concentrated studies of tears-in-the-whiskey depression.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
Far from being an angry album, Show Me Your Tears is filled with the kind of conscious joy that comes from working through your problems.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
While Show Me Your Tears certainly builds on the momentum of 2001's Dog in the Sand, it's also highly reminiscent of the more accessible moments from 1994's Teenager of the Year.
Read Full Review >Nude As The News
Not unlike Wilco’s Being There, Show Me Your Tears gives classic rock lovers a new album to celebrate -- an album to drink by while mourning the fact that most aging rock icons rarely supply anything this raucous anymore.
Read Full Review >Mojo
Enough memorable moments to make this the first Catholics album worthy of your love and attention. [Sep 2003, p.113]
Uncut
Ol' Frank hasn't had this much twisted fun since 1994's Teenager Of The Year. [Oct 2003, p.111]
Stylus Magazine
This is North London collection-plate-pub music of a very high calibre.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
Raw, melancholy, hard, and melodic. [#5, p.98]
Rolling Stone
Full of rootsy indie fare and a slew of excellently bittersweet country rockers. [16 Oct 2003, p.87]
Magnet
Riff-worthy, down and dirty and occasionally idling down Americana's lost highway. [#60, p.92]
Alternative Press
It's virtually impossible to listen to Show Me Your Tears from start to finish; but individually, each song is a dark, delightful peek at Black in the throes of therapy. [Nov 2003, p.108]
Blender
Important? No. Remarkable? Not really. [Sep 2003, p.118]
Pitchfork
Paling in comparison to the Pixies is expected (and it would be unrealistic to expect otherwise), but Tears isn't even a good Catholics album.
Read Full Review >ShakingThrough.net
Even by the standards of Black's previous Catholics and solo offerings, Show Me Your Tears is a disappointment.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
Suffers from the same faults as previous efforts: limp tunes, pompous guitar solos and an overhwlming sense of "Will this do?" [Sep 2003, p.98]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.7 (out of 10) based on 22 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
AJ gave it a9:
The perfect break-up record. The Stones and Leonard Cohen were clearly influences. Mastif Centrale sounds a bit like a Pixies track. For fans: Some great stuff but it feels a little more sterile than say "Dog in the Sand" and a bit more forced than "Black Letter Days."
Ryan Beeswax gave it an 8:
Frank Blacks wifey is gone and his songs are woeful, well, lyrically anyway, he still finds ways to pull out the great rousing pop.pop. melodies that we come to expect from Frank Black and his band the Catholics. In fact, I think Frank Black might be one of the last of his kind: a rocknroller with substance. The album is very stylistically close to Dog in the Sand, maybe a bit more Rolling Stones at times though. Its mostly rock music with some country twang and some good stripped down ballads.. Show Me Your Tears starts off with Nadine and it has some Tom Waits in it; not too much, but you can hear the influence. Im not gonna go thru it track by track, but trust me its a really great album after say 3 listens. The first listen or two will probably leave you wondering where the wonderful melodies Im blathering about are but they are there, just let recognition do its part. Anyway, the album highlights would be, Horrible Day, Massif Centrale(pure Frank Black genius, especially the bridge and simple piano), and Goodbye Lorraine, while the lowlight is The Snake(standard part of the scourge of being prolific) If you mildly like Frank Black you should really go out and get this record and give some money back to an artist who might just be the last of his kind; Rocking and worthy. Im glad his wife is gone, this should be the last horribly laid out disc (she did all the graphic design for all FB&theCs albums). I think somewhere in his heart he knows it too
I mean, besides the poor graphic design (there is a powerful resilience in his voice) 8/10
John M gave it an 8:
Isn't he great? It's probably the Catholics weakest album I think, but still sounds fantastic...
Sven C gave it a 10:
This album is not a grab-your-attention, jump-out-at-you album; you wouldn't play this at the next frat party. But if you can shut down your schizophrenic mind for 45 minutes, you'll be rewarded with an album that will massage your ears with catchy rhythms and in my opinion, Frank Black's best post-Pixies album to date. It's Leonard Cohen meets Tom Petty and it's more relaxing than a serving a quaaludes with a side of kava tea.
Leo K gave it a 10:
The Catholics never disappoint. Frank is incapable of writing a bad tune.
Michael M gave it a 9:
This album takes a while to get used to, but once you're past the initial impression you'll find that there's a lot going on here and a lot to like. I will say, however, that "Manitoba" is a huge disappointment compared with live versions I've heard.
Kris A gave it a 9:
Frank Black betters his work with each album. Lyrically-speaking, SMYT is a departure for Black, a little less cryptic, but somehow more personal and powerful. With this release, Black continues to implement "live to two-track" recording. The result is a fantastic, raw, big rock sound. No over-produced, cookie-cutter band on the radio ever sounded this good. The legacy of the Pixies lives on with the Catholics (despite what some amature critics say).
