Deceiver is quite a departure from the blistering instrumental bluegrass-esque leanings he cut his teeth on as a mandolin wunderkind. Deceiver also takes a bold, new route away from his subsequent solo work that featured his jazz/classical/progressive acoustic-style. In fact, Deceiver is the first Thile solo project to feature vocals, and only includes two instrumentals (palette cleansers). This album, exploring a rock direction, is the logical next step in the maturation of an artist who clearly heeds no boundaries and knows no limitations.