BERLIN DEFENSE

I must admit that I was as amused as you were by the juvenile mail-in campaign perpetrated by the Beverly Hills High School football team to defend Berlin’s new album “Count Three and Pray” (Calendar Letters, Nov. 30).

I also agree that the small sampling of the letters you provided reflected an obvious degree of “teen-brained conformity of opinion,” as you so bluntly put it. That’s why I’m writing to offer an intelligent, mature defense of the band’s new LP, which is certainly an adventurous leap forward from the days of Berlin’s trendy “raunch rock.”

Not that Berlin’s past albums weren’t any good, but the new LP marks significant progress for the band on many counts, proving Berlin to be an inventive and multifaceted ensemble. To say that the LP’s material is fit for nothing more than radio air play is preposterous. Who can deny the haunting instrumentals and lyrics of a song like “Pink and Velvet,” or the first-rate guitar on “Hideaway” and “Trash”?

And to compare singer Terri Nunn to Annie Lennox is like comparing Boy George to Bruce Springsteen. In any case, Nunn can hold her own against Lennox any day. She is a powerful performer with a strong and versatile voice.

ROBERT BARTLETT

Van Nuys