“Silent Movies is a gorgeous and insular detour for downtown guitar visionary Marc Ribot, a dude best known for frenetic Tzadik -endorsed aggro-jazz, wild excursions with Cuban music, atonal balloon-rubbing antics, and percussive ejaculations on any number of Tom Waits albums. The album is a meditative and sober hour of solo guitar work that ranges from gorgeous to foreboding, everything played with the meticulous unspooling of bittersweet black-and-white slapstick. Its 13 tracks were all composed for films—some released, some delayed, some imaginary—and each bulge with a slow, unraveling sense of drama. “Delancey Waltz” was composed for the as-yet-unreleased John Malkovich indie flick Drunk Boat but doesn’t require images to tell its tale, as Ribot gently strums out his sad, kinetic, intimate tumble.”
-- Chris Weingarten