13 - Suicide: Frankie Teardrop

Suicide’s ‘Frankie Teardrop’ is ten and a half minutes of genuinely terrifying industrial noise, a sort of aural equivalent of Eraserhead. Like David Lynch’s film, it conveys a chilling, bleak, monochrome dystopia, full of blood- curdling shrieks and clangs, although I seem to remember that the movie offered the odd moment of respite, an occasional touch of bizarre and malformed hope, whereas ‘Frankie Teardrop’ offers none at all. Here’s a cheerful, bowdlerized version of the story. Frankie works two jobs, but even then he can’t make ends meet, so one night, in despair, he goes back home, murders his wife and children, shoots himself and ends up in Hell. I would, as you might suspect, be lying if I told you that the ten minutes flew by. If you haven’t heard it and you still wish to, set an evening aside, make sure you’re not alone in the room (experiencing... (Continues)