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Ten Percenter
- FB Enquirer -
United Kingdom
1733 Posts |
 Posted - 09/09/2003 : 02:15:47
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Has this review been posted yet? Apologies if so, it is by Darren Levin (no rating or date):
Frank Black and the Catholics
Show Me Your Tears
Shock
It think it’s safe to say, that with his best, most dangerous, most mind-bogglingly genius work behind him Frank Black is now a Doppelganger for the Pixies’ Black Francis.’ But that’s okay. Things change. People mature. People fall in love and get married and settle for mediocrity. People become less subversive and not as cryptic and pump out album after album on two track. And people… people like Black, get divorced. It’s the circle of life as Elton John innocuously told us, and it’s gone full circle- so to speak- for good ol’ Frank.
But unlike the obligatory emotional turmoil and division of assets that follow a marriage bust-up, Black, like a certain Bob Dylan, has documented his divorce in all it’s heart-wrenching glory on his third album in a year (is that a record?) Show Me Your Tears. From the dark, venomous noir-rock of Nadine (named funnily enough after his ex-nuptial) to the reflective musings of Horrible Day (“And the chorus of the lonely/In their gospel robes, of course/They were singing/ ‘Bout My imminent divorce”), it is plainly evident that this is Black’s Blood on the Tracks; a divorce album with all the tear-jerking trimmings.
For a man once synonymous with oddball lyrical gems like “I was talking to peachy peach about kissy kiss” or sardonic jibes “She’s a real left-winger/ ‘Cause she’s been down South and held peasants in her arms,” Black’s introspective ruminations are clearly a departure. On When Will happiness Find Me Again? he serves up his most personal, straightforward lyric yet, “I believed in the fates/I thought they were great/Till that girl left my poor heart in ruins/When will happiness find me again?”
The music here is just as honest. Sticking with the two track format, Black once again treads similar territory to his previous releases with the Catholics. Which means plenty of blues-rock workouts like Horrible Day or Jaina Blues, and pedal steel driven country shuffles like Goodbye Lorraine. There are also a handful of high profile musos from the ubiquitous Van Dyke Parks to Stan Ridgway to ex-Pixie Joey Santiago on deck to flesh-out Black’s plaintive songwriting.
But what separates Show Me Your Tears from last year’s disappointingly bland Black Letter Days and Devil’s Workshop, is the way Black makes us privy to his heartache, his anger and his bitter despair. Who would’ve thought that the man behind the Pixies’ maniacal madness could craft an album so sincere and personal, it actually makes divorce sound kinda neat. Maybe dusting off the prenup wasn’t such a bad idea.
No man is an island, unless he is in the bath |
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