What might be said about Me & Van Gogh:
After one too many bands, Berlin returns to an earlier, more innocent format (piano/voice). Simple, skeletal portraiture. The Song Itself - unadorned.
As true as a torn pocket. As confused as a kid stuck in jail. As sad as a beautiful girl alone on a park bench, her heart + loss a thousand miles away. Absurd as a leering drunk with a beer gut, or a drive past midnight to nowhere.
Berlin creates a world, a town, a topography that seems as familiar as it is unusual. If Van Gogh was alive + wrote songs, they might sound like this record.
He recorded 30 plus tunes at the Hi+Dry loft in Cambridge, MA, playing Mark Sandman’s (big low end) acoustic piano. Billy Conway produced. Tom Dube engineered.
The songs:
1) Me & Van Gogh
2) Criminal
3) Slut
4) Buddha
5) Don’t Talk About Joan
6) The Ride
7) Party Dress
8) A Letter
9) Beer Belly
10) Last Man Standing
11) Rock & Roll Romance
12) Do You Still Love Me?
The stats:
All songs by Rick Berlin (Lobsterland Music) ASCAP 2005
Produced by: Rick Berlin, Billy Conway + Tom Dube
Engineered + mixed by: Tom Dube
Mastering: David Locke, JPMasters
Art Design: Shaun Wortis
Photography: Berlin