It'll End in Tears

It'll End in Tears was an album released in 1984 by 4AD using the name This Mortal Coil as an umbrella title for a loose grouping of guest musicians and vocalists brought together by label boss Ivo Watts-Russell. When released in late 1984, the album reached #38 on the UK Albums Chart. It features many of the artists on the 4AD roster at the time of issue, including Dead Can Dance, as well as key post-punk figure Howard Devoto, who sang "Holocaust", one of two covers of songs from the Third/Sister Lovers album by Big Star to appear on the album. The other Alex Chilton-penned track, the album opener "Kangaroo", was released as a single to promote the album. Two key songs were performed by Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins, including Tim Buckley's haunting "Song to the Siren", which reached #66 on the UK Charts when released as This Mortal Coil's debut single a year before the album. The song remained on the UK Indie Chart for almost two years. Fraser also performed on "Another Day" by Roy Harper, a track that had previously been covered as a duet by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush for the latter's TV special. 4AD would go on to release two further albums under the name of This Mortal Coil: Filigree & Shadow (1986) and Blood (1991).

Valentino Records, a sublabel of Atco Records, released the album in the United States in late 1984, the only time a This Mortal Coil album was released simultaneously in the UK and the US. All three This Mortal Coil albums were later re-released in the US in 1993 on 4AD/Warner Brothers, and in 1998 solely on 4AD.