The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

Pretty self-explanatory
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Hawksmoor
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

Post by Hawksmoor »

migdd wrote:Unsubstantiated rumor has it that EC and the Imposters (along with Charlie Sexton?) have recorded a new album at Magnetic Metallic Studios in Memphis. EC was reported to have mentioned finishing a new album with the Imposters at one of the recent UK dates. The studio has said that the band had booked time there this past May. We'll see.
Well, it's a bit of a mix of 'unsubstantiated rumour' and fact. It is a known fact that Elvis and the Imposters (including Charlie Sexton) have conducted two sessions at Memphis Magnetic recording studio in Memphis. Each session seems to have lasted a couple of days (or even slightly longer). Each session was nominally allocated as 'tour rehearsal', so the first session in October 2021 was rehearsals for the US 'Hello Again' tour and the second session, in May 2022, was rehearsals for the UK TBNI tour.

However, it seems that Sebastian Krys was present at each of the sessions, and it seems that recording took place at each session. Three of the recordings from October 2021 found their way out via radio shows and online, with accompanying videos ('Red Shoes', 'EDIWTB' and 'Magnificent Hurt'). And it looks fairly certain that the studio recording of 'Truth Drug' (which appeared on the Japanese CD as a bonus track) was also recorded at the October 2021 sessions.

So those are the facts. When we come to 'unsubstantiated rumours' (ie guesswork), my personal guess would be that they didn't use those sessions to record an actual 'new LP' as such. But that they recorded some alternative versions, maybe a couple of TBNI out-takes, maybe a couple of new tracks. And my hunch is that we will get a release of those sessions, but it will be more like 'The Clarksdale Sessions' or 'Cruel Smile' (or even 'Wise Up Thought'). A mini-LP of out-takes and alternative versions, unreleased B-sides or whatever.

I could be completely wrong, of course. :)
Last edited by Hawksmoor on Mon Aug 01, 2022 4:37 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

Post by verbal gymnastics »

Given how well this album has been received I’d be surprised if there was not an accompanying bonus release.
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

Post by heyhermano »

Is the nod to Candy Crush in "Mistook Me for a Friend" ("That crush and her confectioner said") the only video game reference in Elvis' catalogue?
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

Post by sweetest punch »

http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB3 ... =2&t=12124

From Uncut, January 2023:

"And we've got another record! It's The Boy Named If (Alive At Memphis Magnetic). We have two recording sessions, one from last October, when The Imposters first played the songs from The Boy Named If live together, and another session in May. We started playing some other songs by other people. There's a track in Japanese on it! I heard this terrific duo called Kimiko and we invited them to rework 'Magnificent Hurt'."
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Hawksmoor
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

Post by Hawksmoor »

sweetest punch wrote:http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB3 ... =2&t=12124

From Uncut, January 2023:

"And we've got another record! It's The Boy Named If (Alive At Memphis Magnetic). We have two recording sessions, one from last October, when The Imposters first played the songs from The Boy Named If live together, and another session in May. We started playing some other songs by other people. There's a track in Japanese on it! I heard this terrific duo called Kimiko and we invited them to rework 'Magnificent Hurt'."
Which would appear to be a different thing from 'In this interview Elvis announces a “entirely different and very exciting” new album for 2023'?

So maybe we have at least three possibilities to look forward to:

1. The Boy Named If (Alive At Memphis Magnetic)
2. The 'entirely different and very exciting' album
3. The PFM box-set/deluxe edition/whatever
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

Post by sweetest punch »

The Boy Named If is nominated for the Grammy for Best Rock Album: http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB3 ... =2&t=12126
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

Post by sweetest punch »

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/mojos-top ... s-of-2022/

MOJO - TOP 75 ALBUMS OF 2023
75. Elizabeth King - I Got A Love
74. Kelly Lee Owens - LP.8
73. Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer - Recordings from the Åland Islands
72. Kae Tempest - The Line Is a Curve
71. Julia Jacklin - PRE PLEASURE
70. Eiko Ishibashi - For McCoy
69. The Black Keys - Dropout Boogie
68. Lambchop - The Bible
67. Jon Spencer & The HITmakers - Spencer Gets It Lit
66. Angel Olsen - Big Time
65. Brian Eno - FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE
64. Wu-Lu - Loggerhead
63. Nina Nastasia - Riderless Horse
62. Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul - Topical Dancer
61. The Lightning Seeds - See You in the Stars
60. Spoon - Lucifer on the Sofa
59. Björk - Fossora
58. Gilla Band - Most Normal
57. Oren Ambarchi - Shebang
56. Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You
55. The Proclaimers - Dentures Out
54. Jake Xerxes Fussell - Good and Green Again
53. XPropaganda - The Heart Is Strange
52. Ezra Furman - All of Us Flames
51. Kurt Vile - (watch my moves)
50. Moor Mother - Jazz Codes
49. Anaïs Mitchell - Anaïs Mitchell
48. Midlake - For the Sake of Bethel Woods
47. Johnny Marr - Fever Dreams Pts. 1-4
46. Black Country, New Road - Ants From Up There
45. Yard Act - The Overload
44. Working Men's Club - Fear Fear
43. Alabaster DePlume - GOLD – Go Forward in the Courage of Your Love
42. Cass McCombs - Heartmind
41. Leyla McCalla - Breaking the Thermometer
40. The Mars Volta - The Mars Volta
39. Elvis Costello & The Imposters - The Boy Named If
38. Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder - GET ON BOARD
37. Khruangbin & Vieux Farka Touré - Ali
36. Jockstrap - I Love You Jennifer B
35. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cool It Down
34. Kendrick Lamar - Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers
33. Jeff Parker - Forfolks
32. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - Endless Rooms
31. Oumou Sangaré - Timbuktu
30. Hurray For The Riff Raff - LIFE ON EARTH
29. Father John Misty - Chloë and the Next 20th Century
28. Gwenno - Tresor
27. Beyoncé - RENAISSANCE
26. Joan Shelley - The Spur
25. Gabriels - Angels & Queens – Part I
24. Panda Bear & Sonic Boom - Reset
23. Drive-By Truckers - Welcome 2 Club XIII
22. Mavis Staples & Levon Helm - Carry Me Home
21. Cate Le Bon - Pompeii
20. Beth Orton - Weather Alive
19. Makaya McCraven - In These Times
18. The Comet Is Coming - Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam
17. Kevin Morby - This Is A Photograph
16. Rich Ruth - I Survived, It's Over
15. Wilco - Cruel Country
14. Weyes Blood - And in the Darkness, Hearts Aglow
13. Spiritualized - Everything Was Beautiful
12. Aldous Harding - Warm Chris
11. The Smile - A Light for Attracting Attention
10. Fontaines D.C. - Skinty Fia
9. Dry Cleaning - Stumpwork
8. Jack White - Fear of the Dawn
7. Bill Callahan - YTI⅃AƎЯ
6. Suede - Autofiction
5. Arctic Monkeys - The Car
4. Horace Andy - Midnight Rocker
3. Black Thought & Danger Mouse - Cheat Codes
2. Wet Leg - Wet Leg
1. Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band - Dear Scott
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

Post by sweetest punch »

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/best-rock-albums-2022/

TOP 30 ROCK ALBUMS OF 2022

(…)

1. Elvis Costello & the Imposters, 'The Boy Named If'

Since the start of his career, Elvis Costello has traded in the most convoluted of emotions: jealousy, spite, heartbreak, regret and revenge coupled with guilt. Over the years, his ability to get to the point has gotten sharper, as evidenced on The Boy Named If, an album of exceptional sonic quality with bright, pop-rock hooks and sly wordplay. But he's no longer the Angry Young Man as he enters the abyss of adulthood. Costello emphasizes that growing up doesn't happen overnight and is rarely painless. Loss of innocence comes at a high price.
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

Post by sweetest punch »

https://www.independent.ie/entertainmen ... 91649.html

The six best albums of the year

(…)
Elvis Costello & The Imposters
The Boy Named If (And Other Children’s Stories)


Elvis described the theme of this, his 32nd studio album, as “your secret self, the one who knows everything you deny, the one you blame for the shattered crockery and the hearts you break, even your own.” And he’s not exaggerating.

The Boy Named If is literary, almost Vaudevillian pop that finds him back together with former Attractions/Imposters Steve Nieve on keys, drummer Pete Thomas and bassist Davey Faragher.

Costello is one of the world’s greatest songwriters and invariably delivers the goods, whether you like the directions and digressions – like the country music on 1981’s Almost Blue or the Americana on 1985’s King of America.

Based loosely on a schoolteacher he had in primary school, ‘Penelope Halfpenny’ is beautifully evocative. ‘Magnificent Hurt’ is like Sinatra singing about Ava Gardner in 1950. “I took another stimulant/I shed a single tear for my predicament. Don’t be surprised or insolent. It’s the way you make me feel.”

Elvis makes us feel many things with his songs.
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

Post by sweetest punch »

https://www.rte.ie/culture/2022/1203/13 ... s-of-2022/

John Kelly's Top 10 albums of 2022

In no particular order, here goes...


(…)
Elvis Costello & The Imposters – The Boy Named If (Capitol/EMI)

Now up for a Grammy, here we have an album made in the extraordinary circumstances of lockdown. Elvis and the various Imposters were on different continents, confined to their own basements and back gardens, and yet they somehow they managed to make an album that’s up there with EC’s very best. The man himself has suggested that they may even have played better and with less inhibition in this way, although I suspect that this might only work with a band like The Imposters – one of the great bands after all. A separate album, the just issued The Boy Named If: Alive at Memphis Magnetic is a recording of what happened when they finally did assemble to rehearse for a tour, playing these songs together for the very first time. Great songs, great band, two great albums.
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

Post by sweetest punch »

https://bestclassicbands.com/2022-class ... t-12-3-22/

2022 in Review: The Best New Albums by Classic Rockers

In part one of our three-installment 2022 holiday gift guide, we looked at the best of the boxed sets, reissues and historical collections aimed at classic rock fans.
For this third and final segment, we’re focusing on newly recorded albums by classic rockers, including Elvis Costello, Jethro Tull, Bonnie Raitt, ZZ Top, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, Journey and many others.

This list is arranged alphabetically by artist—no rankings here because they’re all worthy. All of these are available on CD, many also on vinyl LP and digitally.

(…)
Elvis Costello & the Imposters—The Boy Named If
Said our reviewer, “This record demonstrates that he remains well worthy of attention. His band still cooks. And his trademark vocals and colorful vignettes continue to fascinate…Subjects of the songs and stories range from broken hearts and illicit sex to lies and violence.”
(…)
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

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https://variety.com/lists/the-best-albu ... 2oOV-IDLic

(…)
Chris Willman's Top 10

(…)

2. Elvis Costello & the Imposters, ‘The Boy Named If’

Costello has been doing such good work in the 21st century that it seems a little unfair that so many casual fans have called “The Boy Named If” his best record since the 20th, just because it’s the first one in eons that really harks back at times to the sound and energy of the classic “This Year’s Model” era. Yet they’re not wrong to offer this particular album that particular superlative. It’s not just that Imposters keyboardist Steve Nieve has dusted off the Vox organ sound he employed in the late ’70s, or that Pete Thomas’ snare drum sound is as insanely crisp as it was back then. Even if these songs had been arranged in some other fashion, without that thrilling throwback verve, they’d still be great songs — with the sexual politics of Costello’s early lyrics now replaced with fairly literary short stories about his childhood or other people’s trysts, sung as passionately as ever. It’s hard to think of any other rock ‘n’ roll figure who’s made a record this feisty and great this far into a career, one that still has the delightful bluster of youth plus with the fine-tuning instincts accumulated over a period of decades, to boot.
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

Post by And No Coffee Table »

Steven Thomas Erlewine's list of the Best New Albums of 2022 has The Boy Named If at #4 and The Resurrection of Rust at #42.
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

Post by sweetest punch »

https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/lists/ ... 22-141239/

Uncut’s Best New Albums Of 2022
These are the 50 best LPs that came out this year

(…)
10 ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS
The Boy Named If
EMI

Following two archival projects – a deluxe Armed Forces boxset and a Spanish-language reimagining of This Year’s Model – Costello reunited with The Imposters for this characteristically diverse album anchored by top-drawer rock’n’roll. Its songs involved stories of schoolteachers, imaginary friends, bereaved couples and scoundrels – a rich cast of colourful protagonists, in other words, to populate one of Costello’s very best 21st-century albums.
(…)
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

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https://www.businesspost.ie/life-arts/n ... o_gmd2gwOs

Now that’s what we call music 2022: our top 10 albums of the year
From career bests from Irish artists to superstar turns from abroad, Tony Clayton-Lea compiles the ten best albums of 2022

Elvis Costello & the Imposters: The Boy Named If (EMI)
For over 40 years, Elvis Costello has dared his fan base to second-guess what any album of his might sound like, but this one certainly pleased the diehards with sparky musical references to his late-1970s work.
(…)
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

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Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

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https://www.rollingstone.de/rolling-sto ... 2525891/2/

ROLLING STONE hat gewählt: Die besten Alben des Jahres 2022
ROLLING STONE präsentiert die besten Alben des Jahres 2022

(…)

24. Elvis Costello & The Imposters: „The Boy Named If“
Hier führt Elvis Costello vor, dass er Songs noch immer auf dem Bierdeckel schreiben kann, und die Imposters spielen diese Songs wie auf einem Bierdeckel. Natürlich hört man jederzeit, dass Costello die Stücke auch für Mezzosopran und Harfe komponieren könnte. Vielleicht wird er der Letzte sein, der mit siebzig noch Punkrock aus dem Pub spielt. Könnte sich mal wieder mit Nick Lowe zusammentun. aw

Bester Song: „The Difference“
(…)
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

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Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
sweetest punch
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

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https://www.brooklynvegan.com/chamberla ... s-of-2022/

Chamberlain’s Adam Rubenstein discusses his favorite albums & live shows of 2022

(…)
Elvis Costello & The Imposters - The Boy Named If (+ @ Pier 17)
Doesn’t break new ground for Elvis, but damn, the band is just ripping like it’s 1977 on this record. Drummer Pete Thomas is ferocious and pushing the tempo at age 68! I also saw the Pier 17 show this Summer (with Nick Lowe opening). I was skeptical if the band could replicate the album’s same energy live and I was proven very wrong. Just floored by the pace of this show, and in particular the new songs. Also an emotional moment seeing Elvis joined by Nick for a couple tunes, including of course the Lowe-penned “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding.”
(…)
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Re: The Boy Named If, new album by Elvis & The Imposters, January 14, 2022

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Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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