White Moth

Anti-

With White Moth, Xavier Rudd sought to properly lasso—at long last—the catharsis of his live shows: the sound of his unhinged guitar, thumping stomp boxes and mystically creepy didgeridoos bounding out of the P.A. system. If obtaining an accurate reflection of your live experience is one of the biggest challenges for a genuine stage musician, Rudd pulls it off with White Moth, be it through frayed barn-burners like “Footprint,” light, lovely pop (“Better People”), or such sweet doses of reggae as “Twist.” His fourth record, Moth again pays tribute to the indigenous people of Rudd’s native Australia, and features Aboriginal vocals, and guest spots from members of the Aboriginal musical group Yothu Yindi. If he at times skates across thin ice, recalling dangerous similarities to Ben Harper with his hot-wired Weissenborn, Rudd in the end establishes himself as a blissed-out, concerned hippie who can now rock both live and on disc.