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SHOW ME YOUR TEARS
BY ROB O’CONNOR
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Frank Black albums should come with stickers — "Live Singing!" "Actual Performances!" "No Pitch Correction!" "No Artificial Sweeteners!" — explaining how what you hear on the CD is the actual sound of a live band performing real instruments in a basic recording studio. Several years ago, Black turned sour on the task of overdubbing and the overuse of studio technology, and he began recording his albums live to two-track with few embellishments. Even when he’s employed different producers (he uses three separate ones here), the sonic æsthetic — a raw, thick, guitar-heavy sound — remains largely the same. It’s clear that he believes in the essence of immediate inspiration; more important, he knows how to capture the intangible power of a seasoned rock band firing on all cylinders. Boasting two pedal-steel players and three available guitars, this is an outfit poised, as Rob Pollard might say, to motor away. A great song, however, is more elusive than a locked-in rhythm section. Whereas the band pummel effortlessly through "Nadine," turn with ease toward a country chord progression for "Goodbye Lorraine," and hit the middle of the road hard throughout Show Me Your Tears, Black, for all the appealing quirks of his voice, seems to have neglected some of the finer points of songwriting — namely, the lyrics. Throwaway rhymes, vague references, and non-sequiturs undercut the visceral power of some of the disc’s best tunes. Fortunately for Black, in the realm of rock and roll, a perfectly distorted guitar is often mightier than the pen.
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