SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS WIRE (Toledo Blade)
January 16, 2006
ME AND VAN GOGH, Rick Berlin (Hi-N-Dry)

And now for something completely different: a disc consisting solely of
piano and voice from an artist known for his groundbreaking work with
Orchestra Luna and the Shelley Winters Project. Both of those obscure bands
featured multiple instrumentation and were far from the spare, intriguing
work that Berlin, a Boston-based writer of songs and fiction, offers here on
his second solo work.
"Me and Van Gogh" is, frankly, weird. Berlin's voice and piano are both
untraditional. His voice is an urgent bray that grows more acceptable on
repeated listenings, and his piano playing's heavy on minor chords, but it
works. It's the songwriting that makes this disc transcend being an
interesting oddity, and become something more. Berlin has the same affection
for losers, drunks, prisoners and outsiders as Tom Waits.
"Criminal" is a frank exploration of the sort of insecurity anyone faces
approaching someone who's truly beautiful. "Don't Talk About Joan" is a
strangely compelling song about unrequited love. And "The Letter" is sung
from the perspective of a man in prison who cries in the shower so no one
will see his pain. When it works, it works well. On a few tracks, though,
most notably the tedious "The Ride," Berlin labors for meaning when it isn't
there.
- ROD LOCKWOOD