With no less than Rick Moody, author of The Ice Storm and Demonology, collaborating on lyrics, as well as playing by John McEntire of Tortoise and M.C. Schmidt (aka Matmos), David Grubbs has fashioned a brilliant third album of neo-folk that is as wondrous as Tortoise's audio experiments and as thick with experience as Moody's novels. Musically, Rickets and Scurvy is closest to the solo output of the other half of Gastr del Sol, Jim O'Rourke, on albums like Eureka and Insignificance. "Transom," in particular, walks the line between pop and the unusually experimental. But other sounds are present in Grubbs' post-rock -- John Fahey guitars, a levity to match Miighty Flashlight, American minimalist composers -- all in service of the repatriation of youth. Like time slipping away, Rickets and Scurvy is an album that creeps up on you, but it is as sublime as a long lost memory and equally as rewarding.
© Charles Spano /TiVo