Rick Berlin Shows An Old Stag Knows Best Rick Berlin got his start way back in the early 70’s as the frontman of the operatic rock ensemble Orchestra Luna, and the years show in his wonderfully craggy voice -think Nick Cave meets John Cale. His lyrics are, fittingly, a heady brew of lament and cynicism, and his sound is a mostly successful, and often bizarre mash of baroque pop and folk. Actually, while I was listening to his last two albums, Me and Van Gogh (2005) and Old Stag (2008), what I was most reminded of was Jason Segel’s Dracula opera in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Too, in the stop-pause, crescendo/diminuendo theatrics, there’s more than a hint of Queen, minus the chorus. Berlin’s are sad songs, bolstered by masterful, expressive piano and violin. If ever there was music made for dinner theatre, this is it. Claire on Nov 3rd 2008 - BOSTONTEAPARTIES.COM