The Undertones / Dig Yourself Deep / 2007
Tomorrow's Tears
warm, encouraging, insistently upbeat
A brief, plainspoken pep talk set to a bright chorus, urging someone out of self-isolation and worry by reminding them that pre-emptive grief is wasted grief. The song leans on simple light/weather imagery and a repeated imperative hook rather than narrative development.
anxiety and reassurance self-isolation hope as choice time and anticipation consolation
Who's speaking
A narrator addresses a second person directly, someone withdrawn or anxious, in a tone closer to a friend or partner than a detached observer; the voice is confident and untroubled, which makes it read as comforting rather than preachy, though its simplicity leaves little room for ambiguity or doubt.
What happens
There isn't a plotted story so much as a steady argument: open paragraph one tells the addressee to stop hiding and look backward at better days, paragraph two widens the claim into a general statement that conditions will improve, and both verses converge on the same closing line before dissolving into the wordless, repeated chorus phrase. The song doesn't resolve into a scene change, it simply keeps restating its case more generally.
How it's built
Two short verses of near-identical shape followed by the same two-line chorus each time, with no bridge or twist. The repetition of the final verse line across both stanzas acts as a refrain-within-the-verse, reinforcing the song's single idea rather than developing it, while the chorus functions almost like a mantra, built on repetition of one verb rather than new language.
Section by section
Opening verse
“turn on the light, open the door”
The song begins with two physical commands that double as metaphors for ending self-imposed isolation, immediately establishing the narrator's role as someone trying to coax another person back into engagement.
First refrain line
“you've already cried tomorrow's tears today”
This single line carries the song's conceptual weight, reframing anxious anticipation as pointless grief already spent, and its repetition at the end of both verses makes it functionally the song's thesis statement rather than an incidental lyric.
Chorus
The hook abandons argument for pure repetition of one verb, shifting the song from persuasion into something closer to a shared, almost chant-like gesture of optimism, which suits the track's simple emotional aim more than further explanation would.
Second verse
The imagery widens from the personal to the general — weather clearing, a vague destination, a call for faith — suggesting the narrator is now speaking less to a specific crisis and more toward a general outlook on life, which slightly dilutes the intimacy of the opening lines.
Craft
- imperative mood
- The verses open with direct commands, casting the narrator as active comforter rather than passive witness, and giving the song urgency despite its gentle subject.
- nature/light imagery
- Sun, clouds, and light stand in for emotional clarity and improvement, a conventional but effective shorthand that keeps the song's reassurance concrete rather than abstract.
- paradox
- The idea of having already wept for sorrow that hasn't happened yet frames anxiety as a kind of wasted, premature mourning, which is the song's sharpest and most quotable thought.
- repetition/anaphora
- The chorus's triple repetition of one verb mimics insistence and persuasion, functioning less as lyric content than as a vocal gesture of encouragement.
Reading it
The most straightforward reading is that this is a direct, sincere song of reassurance to someone suffering from anxiety or depression, built around the neat idea that worrying about the future is itself a wasted form of grief. A secondary, less likely reading might hear it as a love song, addressed to a partner who has withdrawn, with the comfort being romantic rather than purely therapeutic — the text doesn't specify the relationship, so either is plausible.
Context
This track comes from Dig Yourself Deep, released after the Undertones reformed in 1999 with Paul McLoone replacing Feargal Sharkey on vocals. I don't have reliable detail on the song's specific writing circumstances or any statements the band made about its meaning, so this reading is based on the lyric text alone.
Listen for
- How the chorus's repeated single verb is delivered vocally — whether it feels triumphant or merely chant-like
- Whether the music brightens or shifts between the verses and chorus, reinforcing the light imagery
- The symmetry between the two verses, which mirror each other almost exactly in structure
- Any vocal inflection on the paradoxical refrain line about having already grieved in advance
About The Undertones
The Undertones are a rock band formed in Derry, Northern Ireland in 1974. From 1975 to 1983, the Undertones consisted of Feargal Sharkey (vocals), John O'Neill, Damian O'Neill, Michael Bradley and Billy Doherty (drums).
1975 - present / United Kingdom
Full biography and catalogue