Great CD, Great CD, Great CD
author: Lew Lefton
I bought this CD after hearing "Bird Bird Bird" on the radio. That song alone is worth the whole CD! By stringing together the sights you would see outside a moving car as it drives through a typical American city, the Berryman's capture the plight of urban decay and suburban flight, all without using a single verb! It's as if this is the point of view of a preverbal child in a car seat, watching out the window. Just fantastic.
I was happily surprised to find the rest of the CD filled with other witty and thoughtful gems from these clearly gifted songwriters.
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With every release, Lou and Peter move the universal song writing bar just a lit
author: SING OUT! Fall 2003 Vol. 47 #3 Matt Watroba
THE PINK ONE marks the fourteenth recording from this one-of-a-kind duo from Madison, Wisconsin. With every release, Lou and Peter move the universal song writing bar just a little bit higher. THE PINK ONE features eleven brand new songs and three re-recorded and rescued from the vinyl vault. The whole package is presented in true Berryman fashion: 12-string guitar, accordion and vocals, homemade from design to recording and, in the end, totally satisfying.
As with any other of their CDs, you can listen again and again because the melodies are so engaging and the word play comes so wonderfully fast and furious. All 4,029 words to the songs are included in the booklet. If you're a fan, relish in them. If you're a budding songwriter, study them closely. You can go to school on their ability to match fresh ideas and meticulous rhyme and structure to melody.
Some highlights include the offbeat agnostic anthem "After Life Goes By", a round-trip car ride using only short image bursts in "Bird Bird "Bird", a sweet love song between a gardening nut and a baking nut in 7/4 time and "Amalgamated Gigawatt McGoo", a hysterical take on deregulation. Lou and Peter Berryman have done it again.
--Matt Watroba
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