Chris Thile: Deceiver : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

He's got some of Jamie Cullum's sound, Bela Fleck's post-bluegrass virtuosity and Rufus Wainwright's theatrical delivery, but on Deceiver, Chris Thile nearly enters rock-opera territory -- Broadway style, orchestra and all -- if one guy playing more than twenty-five instruments can be called an orchestra. On his fifth solo album, the twenty-three-year-old Nickel Creek mandolinist crams classical, jazz, folk, rock and even a little bluegrass into an opus that fulfills his definition of music: tension and release. He lunges for dramatic moments and choruses made to be belted out by perky young singer/dancers, then backs off with little whispers like "Waltz for Dewayne Pomeroy," which sounds like a Christmas madrigal (uh-oh ... tights alert). That's followed by the pop-rock punch of "Empire Falls." "Jessamyn's Reel," a sweet bluegrass instrumental, comes right before the climax-building electric-guitar crank of "The Believer." In some odd way, it all fits together.