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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).
