It'll End in Tears is the first album released by 4AD collective This Mortal Coil, a loose grouping of artists on the label brought together by label boss Ivo Watts-Russell. The album was released by 4AD on 8 October 1984, and reached #38 on the UK Albums Chart.

The album features many of the artists on the 4AD roster at the time, including Cocteau Twins, Colourbox, and Dead Can Dance. Howard Devoto of Magazine sang "Holocaust", one of two covers of songs from Big Star's 1978 album Third/Sister Lovers; the other Big Star cover, album opener "Kangaroo", was released as a single. Two key songs were performed by Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins, including a cover of Tim Buckley's "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 Independent Singles Chart for almost two years.

4AD would release two further This Mortal Coil albums: 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. A remastered and repackaged CD edition of It'll End in Tears was issued with the complete This Mortal Coil recordings in a self-titled box set, released in late November 2011. The CD was released individually shortly thereafter.

In 2018, Pitchfork ranked It'll End in Tears at number eight on its list of "The 30 Best Dream Pop Albums".