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

[Psc]

Done! thanks for the link..

[sweetest punch]

https://www.nodepression.com/album-revi ... LT41kH2gFk

Elvis Costello Rediscovers His Roots on ‘The Boy Named If’

What’s that line in Godfather III, just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in?

Elvis Costello is unquestionably one of the greatest songwriters in popular music history, and recent reissues of seminal works like This Year’s Model and Armed Forces have only validated that status. But revisiting these successes has only highlighted the fact that while his last couple of albums contain moments of brilliance, they fall short of recapturing the passion and wit of his heyday.

Enter his newest LP, The Boy Named If. Full of tight hooks, loud guitars, and an unflagging energy, it’s the best and most inspired Costello and the Imposters have sounded on a studio album since at least National Ransom in 2010.

While Costello’s previous two albums featured forays into jazz and baroque themes and played with production techniques to various degrees of success, The Boy Named If plays like a jolt of electricity. Opening track “Farewell, OK” is a fun rock and roller, while at various points tracks like “Mistook for a Friend” and “Magnificent Hurt” conjure up memories of his own “Pump it Up” (or perhaps pop star Olivia Rodrigo’s “brutal”). But in echoing the structures and sounds of his previous work, Costello seems less interested in reliving his past than in reinterpreting it to new effect. Gone is the wound-up neuroticism of his youth; in its place is a sense of purpose and playfulness.

Elsewhere, “Penelope Halfpenny” pushes Costello’s Beatles influence to the forefront, resulting in a bright pop-rock gem. “Paint the Red Rose Blue” is a stately ballad bolstered by one of his finest, most subtle vocal performances to date.
This record concludes a flurry of activity for Costello in recent years. Including the 2021 Spanish-language remix and re-recording of This Year’s Model, it’s his fourth full-length album in four years. With The Boy Named If, he’s saved the best of them all for last.

[Man out of Time]

Interview with Paul Kirkley in Waitrose Weekend (an upmarket UK supermarket magazine, free at the checkout).

https://weekend-online.com/issue584/10/

Truly the EMI PR department have been working overtime on the release of the new album....

MOOT

[sweetest punch]

https://www.maxazine.nl/2022/01/13/elvi ... -named-if/

Elvis Costello & the Imposters - The Boy Named If

Op 14 januari brengt Elvis Costello, samen met zijn begeleidingsband The Imposters onder titel ‘The boy named If’ een nieuw album uit. Zelf zeggen ze ervan dat het album “urgente, directe nummers bevat met heldere melodieën, prikkelende gitaarsolo’s en lekker snelle ritmes.”

Als een band of een artiest zelf al de claim brengt dat zijn album ‘ urgente’ nummers zals brengen, daarmee publiek en recensenten een zekere maatschappelijke betrokkenheid opdringend, is het meestal extra oppassen geblazen. Veelal gaat er dan wel een arrogantie-alarm af.

Elvis Costello heeft echter een immens trackrecord van juist het soort albums dat deze claims meer dan waar maken. Denk aan albums als “Spike”. Met The Imposters maakte hij eerder een album als “The Delivery man”, waarin hij toch vooral een heel erg directe manier van rock’ n roll maken neerzet, verre van sophisticated of geproduceerd, maar meer op een ‘ in your face’ gespeeld en rauw. Dat kan je ook verwachten van het nieuwe album.

Je kan “The Boy named If” een coming of age album noemen. Costello kijkt terug en beschrijft waarschijnlijk zijn eigen weg naar volwassenheid. Ongecompliceerde rock’n roll, met her en der heerlijke chaotische gitaarsolo’s zoals op prijsnummer “What if i can’t give you anything but love”, waarvan de wanhoop afspat. Knap hoor als je als oudere muzikant nog steeds zo diep durft te gaan en jezelf zo bloot kan en durft te geven.

“Paint the red rose blue” is dan weer zo’n typisch Costello nummer waarmee hij door de jaren heen zijn grote groep volgers heeft opgebouwd. Hier in een ‘imposters’ jasje, maar het had net zo goed in een ander arrangement op “Spike” kunnen staan of op zijn bloedmooie samenwerking met Burt Bacharach. “The Boy named if” laat zien wanneer Costello op zijn best is. Namelijk als frontman in een rock bandje. “Magnificent Hurt” is ook zo’n lekker nummer waarop de zelfbenoemde urgentie van kracht is. Heerlijk.

Doet Costello op dit album iets nieuws of wereldschokkends ? Nee. De man laat wel nog maar eens een keert zien dat hij als een vis in het water is als hij zo puur en onversneden kan rocken. Het klinkt gedateerd, dat zeker. Het is muziek waar anno 2022 eigenlijk niemand echt op zit te wachten. Costello hoeft zich echter voor niemand meer te bewijzen, dat heeft hij in zijn lange carrière al lang gedaan. Kwaliteit verloochent zich niet. Ook niet op dit album. (8/10) (EMI)

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Google translation:

Elvis Costello & the Imposters - The Boy Named If

On January 14, Elvis Costello, together with his backing band The Imposters, will release a new album entitled 'The boy named If'. They say that the album contains "urgent, direct songs with clear melodies, tantalizing guitar solos and nice fast rhythms."

If a band or an artist himself makes the claim that his album will contain 'urgent' songs, thus forcing the public and critics to feel a certain social involvement, then you usually have to be extra careful. Usually an arrogance alarm goes off.

However, Elvis Costello has an immense track record of just the kind of albums that more than live up to these claims. Think albums like “Spike”. With The Imposters he previously made an album like “The Delivery man”, in which he mainly puts down a very direct way of making rock 'n roll, far from sophisticated or produced, but played more 'in your face' and raw. . That's what you can expect from the new album.

You can call “The Boy Named If” a coming of age album. Costello looks back and probably describes his own path to adulthood. Uncomplicated rock'n roll, with wonderful chaotic guitar solos here and there, such as on the award song "What if I can't give you anything but love", which radiates despair. It's great if you, as an older musician, still dare to go so deep and can and dare to expose yourself like that.

“Paint the red rose blue” is another typical Costello song with which he has built up his large group of followers over the years. Here in an 'imposter' guise, but it could just as well have been in a different arrangement on “Spike” or on his stunning collaboration with Burt Bacharach. “The Boy named if” shows when Costello is at his best. Namely as a frontman in a rock band. “Magnificent Hurt” is another great song with a self-proclaimed urgency. Delicious.

Is Costello doing something new or earth shattering on this album ? New. The man shows once again that he is like a fish in water when he can rock so pure and unadulterated. It sounds dated, that's for sure. It is music that in 2022 no one is really waiting for. However, Costello no longer has to prove himself to anyone, he has already done that for a long time in his long career. Quality is not denied. Not even on this album. (8/10) (EMI)

[sweetest punch]

https://www.google.be/amp/s/www.krone.a ... 81%3famp=1

„THE BOY NAMED IF“
Elvis Costello: Lebensrückschau ohne Rührung

Im Herbst seiner Karriere startet der Wahl-New-Yorker Elvis Costello noch einmal seinen kreativen Turbo. Auf dem neuen, mit seiner Band den Imposters aufgenommenen Album „The Boy Named If (And Other Children‘s Tales)“ blickt der 67-Jährige ohne Nostalgie und Sentiment auf die Unschuld und Naivität der Kindheitstage zurück. Musikalisch so schwungvoll und dreckig wie lange nicht mehr.

Teilen

Wer an die 2010er-Jahre zurückdenkt und nicht selbst ehrfürchtiger Fan ist, hat von Elvis Costello wenig mitbekommen. Das famose „Wise Up Ghost“ mit den fantastischen Roots im Jahr 2013, aber ansonsten blieb es eher ruhig um Elvis aka Declan MacManus, der einer breiteren Publikumsschicht noch vor dem Millennium mit seinem Auftritt bei „Austin Powers 2“ zugänglich wurde. Gemeinsam mit seinem Freund und Legende Burt Bacharach verzauberte er den Song „I’ll Never Fall In Love Again“ mehr als 30 Jahre nach seinem Ursprung für eine jüngere Generation. Costello war zu dieser Zeit verstärkt ins Jazzig-Verschrobene und Balladenhafte gewechselt und ließ seiner alten Liebe zum New-Wave-geschwängerten Pub Rock nur mehr äußerst selten freien Lauf. Doch plötzlich ging es schnell. 2018 das Quasi-Comeback „Look Now“ samt Grammy, eine überstandene Krebserkrankung und 2020 dann „Hey Clockface“, dessen Ursprünge vor Covid noch in drei verschiedenen Städten steckten.

Rückschau ohne Sentiment
Costello war plötzlich nicht nur wieder fleißig und omnipräsent, er hatte auch sein kompositorisches Mojo wiedergefunden. Schnell, knackig, vielseitig. Grund genug, sich während Corona wieder mit seinen Imposters zusammenzutun, um nur ein gutes Jahr nach „Hey Clockface“ schon das nächste Album ins Rund zu werfen. „The Boy Named If (And Other Children’s Tales)“ ist ein Rutsch in die eigene Kindheit, ohne dabei nostalgisch zu sein, wie uns der 67-Jährige im Interview mit Nachdruck vermittelt. „Nostalgie bedeutet, sich irgendwohin zurückzusehnen. Das tue ich nicht. Ich lebe immer voll und ganz im Hier und Jetzt. Das Album ist auch nicht sentimental, das wäre überhaupt das Schlimmste gewesen.“ Für Costello gilt es die Begriffe Nostalgie und Vergangenheit nicht zu vermischen. „Ohne aus der Vergangenheit zu schöpfen, würde es keine Kreativität geben. Das Sentiment der Nostalgie hat bei mir aber keinen Platz.“

Diese Frische und die unbändige Lust aufs Gaspedal merkt man „The Boy Named If“ nahezu durchgehend an. Mit „Paint The Red Rose Blue“ und dem abschließenden „Mr. Crescent“ füttert der in New York wohnhafte Brite nur selten die Liebhaber reduzierter Faserschmeichlereien, ansonsten ist vorwiegend Hochgeschwindigkeit Programm. Die naive Unschuld ist nicht zuletzt im Comic-artigen Cover-Artwork und den dazugehörigen Videos verewigt. Weitere untrügliche Beweise dafür, dass Costello im Herbst seiner Karriere noch einmal richtig Lust auf ungezwungene Gitarrenlastigkeit hat. Der Song „Penelope Halfpenny“ ist etwa eine lose Hommage an eine Lehrerin, die der Musiker in der Grundschule hatte. „Ich habe das Album ganz alleine auf der E-Gitarre begonnen, fünf Songs so weit wie möglich dafür entwickelt und dann ein Album daraus kreiert, das die Imposters einspielen sollten.“

Ehen und Scheidungen
Der Grund für die durchwegs fetzige Musik liegt dann doch wieder in der Vergangenheit begraben. Costello hat sein 1978 erschienenes Kultwerk „This Year’s Model“ mit unterschiedlichen Stimmen noch einmal komplett neu für den spanischsprachigen Markt eingespielt und sich damit den entscheidenden Zündfunken für „The Boy Named If“ verpasst. „Mir kamen die Ideen für das Album in extrem kurzer Zeit und ich wollte sie so schnell wie nur möglich umsetzen. Die Jungs von den Imposters und ich kennen uns so gut, dass wir auch aus der Ferne ein tolles Album zusammenstellen können. Steve Nieve und Pete Thomas kenne ich länger als 40 Jahre. Wir haben zusammen Ehen, Touren und Scheidungen erlebt. So dreht sich schlussendlich auch das Album um Ängste, Melancholie, Freude und all die Emotionen, die wir als Kinder und Kind gebliebene erlebt haben.“

Das „If“ im Albumtitel steht übrigens für einen Spitznamen eines imaginären Freundes, den Kinder meist haben. Bei Costello hat sich das damals anders entwickelt. „Ich hätte diese Gesellschaft durchaus begrüßt, aber mir war sie nicht vergönnt. Ich hatte als Kind einen Schutzengel, was reichlich seltsam war. Stell dir einfach mal vor, du bist ohnehin schon ein Außenseiter, und dann auch noch einer, bei dem die ganze Zeit ein Geist herumfliegt.“ Für das Album wollte Costello auch die wundervolle Vorstellungskraft eines Kindes hervorholen. „Ein Kind ist komplett frei. Es ist voller Selbstvertrauen und ganz ohne Angst, weil jeder gesetzte Schritt natürlich erscheint.“ Irgendwann ist es damit unweigerlich vorbei, wie der Song „The Death Of Magic Thinking“ aussagt. „Plötzlich rücken Begierden, Verluste und Unsicherheiten in das vorher so freie und unschuldige Leben. Teenager wollen dann über Fußball, Mädels und Rock’n’Roll reden und sich nicht die Kunst der Trigonometrie aufbürden. Die große Unschuld ist vorbei.“

Freiheit zur Sinnlosigkeit
Auf „A Boy Named If“ bietet jeder einzelne Song einen Platz für eine Szene aus der Vergangenheit eines Menschen an. „Das Leben gibt dir oft viele Versprechungen, die es dann nicht einhält. Man hofft, dass diese oder jene Lebensphase grandios wird, aber die Realität ist dann doch nicht so romantisch. Das ist ein Teil des Erwachsenwerdens und gehört unweigerlich dazu.“ Costello geht es mit dem Album aber auch nicht darum, noch einmal das innere Kind rauszulassen. „Für mich klingt das so seltsam. Als würde man sich selbst ein Alibi für etwas ausstellen. Ich nenne das lieber ,den inneren Idioten‘. Manchmal muss man sich im Leben einfach die Freiheit geben, Dinge zu tun, die absolut gar keinen Sinn machen. So wie etwa das Gitarrensolo beim Song ,Magnificent Hurt‘. Das macht auch keinen Sinn, aber es musste sein.“

Auch nach mehr als 40 Jahren im Musikbusiness sieht sich Costello in erster Linie als Instinktmusiker, für den Pläne und besondere Ziele nur eine Belastung darstellen. „Ich habe kein Bewusstsein dafür, was ich mache und was nicht. Bei mir passiert alles ohne Vorsatz. Meine Karriere ist dafür doch das beste Beispiel oder nicht? Schon früh in meiner Karriere wollte ich nach Nashville, um einen Country-Song mit einem Streicherquartett einzuspielen. Das hat niemand verstanden und vielleicht Erfolg gekostet. Aber all meine Kollaborationen in der Musik entstanden aus Neugierde, Freundschaft und der Tatsache, dass ich das Gegenüber achte und schätze. Ich habe auch nur wenige treue Fans, viele kamen und gingen wieder, aber es war immer jemand da. Dafür bin ich dankbar. Hätte ich 45 Jahre lang die gleiche Strophe wiederholen sollen? Sicher nicht. Ich wollte immer dazulernen.“

Keine Lust aufs Manifest
Die raue Energie und Unbesonnenheit der jungen Tage möchte sich Costello im wohl wieder schwierigen Jahr 2022 bewahren. Optimismus lautet das Credo, denn was bleibt einem schon sonst übrig? „Wenn ich früher einfach Lust hatte, in London einen spontanen Gig zu spielen, dann war immer ein Club oder Keller frei. Damit ist es endgültig vorbei, denn die Konzertvenues sind durch die Verschiebungen teilweise über Jahre hinweg reserviert. Deshalb verschiebe ich auch meine Tour immer, denn würde ich sie ganz absagen, stünde ich in der Warteschlange wieder ganz hinten.“ Corona macht eben auch für honorige Elder Statesmen des Pop-Business keine Ausnahme. „Ich bin keiner von jenen, die ein Manifest für oder gegen Corona verfassen. Ich will einfach wieder auf die Bühne und sobald das möglich ist, werde ich es tun.“ Pragmatisch, motiviert, cool. Vielleicht braucht die Welt 2022 einfach mehr Elvis Costellos…

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Google translation:

"THE BOY NAMED IF"
Elvis Costello: life review without emotion

In the autumn of his career, Elvis Costello, a New Yorker by choice, started his creative turbo again. On the new album "The Boy Named If (And Other Children‘s Tales)", recorded with his band Imposters, the 67-year-old looks back on the innocence and naivety of his childhood days without nostalgia and sentiment. Musically more lively and dirty than it has been in a long time.

divide

Anyone who thinks back to the 2010s and is not an awesome fan themselves has not noticed much of Elvis Costello. The famous “Wise Up Ghost” with the fantastic roots in 2013, but otherwise it remained rather quiet about Elvis aka Declan MacManus, who became accessible to a broader audience with his appearance on “Austin Powers 2” before the millennium. Together with his friend and legend Burt Bacharach, he enchanted the song "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" for a younger generation more than 30 years after its origins. At this time Costello had increasingly switched to the jazz-eccentric and ballad-like and only rarely let his old love for New Wave-laden pub rock run free. But suddenly it happened quickly. In 2018 the quasi-comeback "Look Now" including a Grammy, a survived cancer and in 2020 then "Hey Clockface", whose origins were in three different cities before Covid.

Review without sentiment
Suddenly Costello was not only busy and omnipresent again, he had also found his compositional mojo again. Fast, crisp, versatile. Reason enough to reunite with his Imposters during Corona to throw the next album into circulation just a year after “Hey Clockface”. "The Boy Named If (And Other Children’s Tales)" is a slide into your own childhood without being nostalgic, as the 67-year-old emphatically tells us in an interview. “Nostalgia means longing to go back somewhere. I do not do that. I always live fully in the here and now. The album isn't sentimental either, that would have been the worst at all. ”For Costello, it is important not to mix the terms nostalgia and the past. “Without drawing on the past, there would be no creativity. But the sentiment of nostalgia has no place with me. "

This freshness and the irrepressible desire for the accelerator can be noticed almost consistently in “The Boy Named If”. With “Paint The Red Rose Blue” and the concluding “Mr. Crescent ”, the Briton, who lives in New York, rarely feeds lovers of reduced fiber flattery, otherwise the program is mainly high-speed. The naive innocence is immortalized not least in the comic-style cover artwork and the accompanying videos. Further unmistakable evidence that Costello once again really craves casual guitar-heaviness in the fall of his career. The song "Penelope Halfpenny" is a loose homage to a teacher that the musician had in elementary school. "I started the album all by myself on the electric guitar, developed five songs as much as possible for it and then created an album out of it for the Imposters to record."

Marriages and divorces
The reason for the consistently groovy music is buried in the past. Costello has re-recorded his cult work "This Year’s Model", published in 1978, with different voices for the Spanish-speaking market and thus missed the decisive spark for "The Boy Named If". “The ideas for the album came to me in an extremely short time and I wanted to implement them as soon as possible. The guys from the Imposters and I know each other so well that we can put together a great album from a distance. I've known Steve Nieve and Pete Thomas for more than 40 years. We have seen marriages, tours, and divorces together. In the end, the album is about fears, melancholy, joy and all the emotions that we experienced as children and children who remained. "

By the way, the “If” in the album title stands for a nickname of an imaginary friend that children usually have. At Costello things developed differently back then. “I would have welcomed this company, but I was not granted it. I had a Guardian Angel as a kid, which was pretty strange. Just imagine that you are already an outsider, and then one with a ghost flying around all the time. ”For the album, Costello also wanted to bring out the wonderful imagination of a child. “A child is completely free. It's full of self-confidence and completely without fear, because every step you take seems natural. ”At some point it inevitably ends, as the song“ The Death Of Magic Thinking ”says. “Suddenly desires, losses and Uncertainties in the previously free and innocent life. Teenagers want to talk about football, girls and rock'n'roll and not burden themselves with the art of trigonometry. The great innocence is over. "

Freedom to futility
On “A Boy Named If” every single song offers a place for a scene from a person's past. “Life often gives you many promises that it then does not keep. One hopes that this or that phase of life will be terrific, but the reality is not so romantic after all. It's part of growing up and inevitably belongs to it. ”With the album, Costello isn't about letting out the inner child again. “That sounds so strange to me. Like setting up an alibi for yourself for something. I prefer to call that the inner idiot ‘. Sometimes in life you just have to give yourself the freedom to do things that make absolutely no sense. Like the guitar solo on the song, Magnificent Hurt ‘. That doesn't make any sense either, but it had to be. "

Even after more than 40 years in the music business, Costello sees himself primarily as an instinctive musician for whom plans and special goals are just a burden. “I have no awareness of what I do and what not. Everything happens to me without intent. My career is the best example of this, isn't it? Early in my career, I wanted to go to Nashville to record a country song with a string quartet. Nobody understood that and perhaps cost success. But all of my collaborations in music arose out of curiosity, friendship and the fact that I respect and appreciate the other person. I also have only a few loyal fans, many came and went, but someone was always there. I am grateful for that. Should I have repeated the same verse for 45 years? Certainly not. I always wanted to learn something new. "

Not in the mood for the manifesto
Costello would like to preserve the raw energy and carelessness of the younger days in what will probably be another difficult year in 2022. The credo is optimism, because what else can you do? “When I used to just want to play a spontaneous gig in London, there was always a club or cellar free. With that it is finally over, because the concert venues are partly reserved for years due to the postponements. That's why I always postpone my tour, because if I canceled it entirely, I would be at the back of the queue. ”Corona is no exception for honorable elder statesmen of the pop business. "I'm not one of those who write a manifesto for or against Corona. I just want to get back on stage and as soon as I can, I'll do it. ”Pragmatic, motivated, cool. Maybe the world needs in 2022 more Elvis Costello’s.

[sweetest punch]

https://www.musikexpress.de/mit-tocotro ... a-2103165/

[sweetest punch]

https://www.google.be/amp/s/mopop.de/re ... 14455/amp/

[Hawksmoor]

Haven't translated yet so have no clue what it means, but I have to say that 'Der Punkpop - Elvis kann’s noch!' is not just the greatest title I have seen for an Elvis Costello review, it's probably the greatest title I have seen for any LP review, ever.

[sweetest punch]

https://www.stuttgarter-nachrichten.de/ ... b6e3c.html

[Psc]

Haven't translated yet so have no clue what it means, but I have to say that 'Der Punkpop - Elvis kann’s noch!' is not just the greatest title I have seen for an Elvis Costello review, it's probably the greatest title I have seen for any LP review, ever.

reckon you should get it printed onto a T-shirt...

[sweetest punch]

Lyric video of The Boy Named If available soon: https://youtu.be/9Tjuygr65SU

[sweetest punch]

https://www.google.be/amp/s/consequence ... eview/amp/

The Boy Named If Proves That Elvis Costello & The Imposters Have No Intention of Slowing Down

Costello and Co.’s latest LP doesn’t match 2020’s Hey Clockface, but it’s not far behind, either

With over two dozen studio collections — and roughly fifty years as a professional musician — under his belt, English power-pop/pub rock songsmith Elvis Costello has nothing left to prove. And yet, he’s been putting out superb records since 1977’s My Aim is True. In fact, 2020’s Hey Clockface was one of his most multifarious and consistent efforts in several years.

Fortunately, follow-up The Boy Named If (out Friday, January 14th) is another winning entry in his repertoire. Admittedly, it’s not quite as exceptional or significant as its immediate predecessor, but it nonetheless proves that Costello (and The Imposters) are still highly capable of dishing out charmingly eccentric, poignant, and catchy compositions like no one else.

According to Costello, the album’s full title is The Boy Named If (And Other Children’s Stories). He explained in a statement: “‘IF,’ is a nickname for your imaginary friend; 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…”

Once again, he enlisted Sebastian Krys as co-producer. In contrast to the miscellaneous, globe-spanning cast of musicians who appeared on Hey Clockface, though, The Boy Named If naturally features the same line-up as 2018’s Look Now (Costello, keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Davey Faragher, and drummer Pete Thomas). Unsurprisingly, each one of them stands out as an essential part of the recipe, and it’s clear that the chemistry between them is as strong as ever.

The set wastes virtually no time delighting and impressing thanks to the quasi-symphonic quirkiness of the title track. Full of dynamic arrangements and satisfyingly erratic phrasing, it offers some truly adventurous instrumentation and hearty singing. “Penelope Halfpenny” and “The Difference” are just as full-bodied, but with a bit more carnivalistic edge and hooky romanticism. Another heavy highlight comes with “Mistook Me for a Friend,” where backing harmonies, wide-ranging verses, and in-your-face rhythms find the foursome successfully stretching themselves vocally and instrumentally.

As expected, the record also contains some softer gems that demonstrate the group’s resilient knack for nuance and melody. Namely, there’s “Paint the Red Rose Blue,” a gorgeous ballad concerning “a bereft couple [who] learn to love again, painting a melancholy blue over the red of romance.” Its sundry accentuations and expressive storytelling (“He haunted the shadows/ And waited until/ They had secrets to sell him/ And some practical skill”) make it extraordinary. Oh, and Costello embodies the subject matter through his trembling timbre, too.

At times, the slightly more Americana “My Most Beautiful Mistake” — a duet between Costello and the always-great Nicole Atkins — nearly reaches the same level of mesmerizing mournfulness. Notably, and probably unintentionally, the penultimate “Trick out the Truth” seems like an alternative version of the outstanding “God’s Comic” (from 1989’s Spike). As for closer “Mr. Crescent,” it evolves tactfully from a lightly decorated acoustic ode to a divinely embellished farewell whose magnificence lingers long after it’s finished.

While the vast majority of the LP is fantastic, that doesn’t mean it’s flawless. In particular, blues rock opener “Farewell, OK” (initially penned as a deservedly hostile send-off to 2020) is surprisingly unimaginative and off-putting. Sure, its crassness conveys how fed-up Costello — like all of us — is with the pandemic, but that doesn’t mean it’s an enjoyable listen. Similarly, “What If I Can’t Give You Anything But Love?” is pleasing enough, yet undeniably cliché in terms of both its music and its central topic.

Those issues notwithstanding, The Boy Named If is a wonderful record and a testament to Costello’s enduring originality and talent. Honestly, few other artists who’ve been at it for this long are able to retain such remarkable vivacity, skill, and creativity. Likewise, the Imposters continue to produce a captivating formula that none of Costello’s other backing bands (no matter how great in their own right) can match. As usual, the quartet have produced something genuinely special here, and their next collaboration can’t come soon enough.

Catch Elvis Costello & the Imposters on tour; tickets are available via Ticketmaster.

Essential Tracks: “Paint the Red Rose Blue,” “Trick Out the Truth,” “The Boy Named If,” “My Most Beautiful Mistake”

[jardine]

just got the shipping notice, #1153

didn't someone say that 1500 gets a #1, or something like that...?

[sweetest punch]

https://shepherdexpress.com/music/album ... imposters/

The Boy Named If by (Capitol) by Elvis Costello & The Imposters

Elvis Costello has resisted the “institution” status foisted upon other senior-citizen singer-songwriters—including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young—not just by delving into opera, ballet, classical-quartet composition (with the Brodsky Quartet) and classic-pop collaboration (with Burt Bacharach), but also by regularly issuing astringent reminders of his rock ‘n’ roll intelligence.

The Boy Named If, this year’s reminder, features the usual astute playing from his usual Imposters: old Attractions comrades Pete Thomas and Steve Nieve on drums and keyboards, respectively, and Davey Faragher on bass.

Faragher’s rhythmic zoom truly revs the opening track, “Farewell, OK,” into motion, although Thomas never miscues a beat and Nieve skillfully drapes piano and organ streamers, in colors ranging from carnivalesque to funereal, across Costello’s songcraft.

That craft remains rough or refined as the mood requires, and, like most of Costello’s albums from 1989’s Spike onward, this one is very moody. If Costello is no longer so devoted to his “revenge and guilt” motivation circa 1977, he’s not entirely beyond it: the most celebratory number here is a Dixieland-tinged stroll and stomp entitled “The Man You Love to Hate.”

At 67, Costello has earned the moodiness, but he’s also incorporated the aging of his voice, especially its vulnerability, into a strong sense of yearning and tenderness, whether the music clangs around him on “What If I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” or gives him stately room to settle into hushed tones for “Paint the Red Rose Blue.”

With occasional reconfigurations of older ideas—such as how “My Most Beautiful Mistake” nods to “Brilliant Mistake” from 1986’s King of America—Costello invites a listener to place The Boy Named If in his artistic continuum. It fits among 1994’s Brutal Youth and 2002’s When I Was Cruel as music that comes back later as troubled dreams and haunted memories.

[sweetest punch]

https://www.gp.se/kultur/musik/recensio ... 1.63683801

[sweetest punch]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/13/arts ... eview.html

Elvis Costello & the Imposters Are Still Blasting Away
With his longtime bandmates, the English songwriter noisily demolishes illusions on “The Boy Named If.”

During the pandemic, plenty of musicians have unveiled their quieter, scaled-down, more reflective sides. Elvis Costello, typically, had other ideas.

His 2020 album, “Hey Clockface,” was a high-contrast miscellany: urbanely retro acoustic pop, bruising rockers, otherworldly electronics. For “Spanish Model” in 2021, he gathered Spanish-speaking rockers to translate lyrics and replace his own vocals on the tracks from “This Year’s Model,” his fierce, punky 1978 album with the Attractions. Apparently revisiting the Attractions at their most aggressive sparked something. On “The Boy Named If,” Costello is rejoined by his perennial band the Imposters — the original Attractions with a replacement bassist — for songs that kick hard and deep. It’s anything but quiet.

“The Boy Named If” has an elaborate superstructure. Its deluxe version adds an 88-page book written and illustrated by Costello: “The Boy Named If and Other Children’s Tales.”

It’s not made for children, though. Each song gets a prose vignette — sometimes fleshing out the lyrics, sometimes sketching alternate scenarios — alongside bright, blocky, big-eyed drawings. The vignettes, like the songs, are full of Costello’s jumpy wordplay, and they involve lust, infidelity, violence, predation, betrayal, deception, self-deception and other grown-up pastimes.

The situations and wordplay are knotty; often, they crash youthful illusions into adult disillusion. The album’s stomping title track posits a lucky, seductive, elusive imaginary friend, “the boy named If,” who always escapes consequences. In “What if I Can’t Give You Anything But Love?,” over a swaggering beat, a cheating husband struggles to figure out where he actually stands with his paramour: “Don’t fix me with that deadly gaze/It’s a little close to pity,” he chokes out. And in “My Most Beautiful Mistake,” a duet with Nicole Atkins, a screenwriter in a diner tells the waitress about envisioning her in movie scenes; she’s skeptical. “I’ve seen your kind before,” she observes, “in courtroom sketches.”

While the lyrics are convoluted, the music simply charges ahead. Like so many pandemic albums, “The Boy Named If” was pieced together remotely. Costello, on guitar, worked together with the drummer Pete Thomas; then he and the co-producer Sebastian Krys layered on parts by Davey Faragher on bass and Steve Nieve on keyboards.

Yet the Imposters sound gleefully, brutally unified, every bit as bristling as the Attractions on “This Year’s Model” or the Imposters on “When I Was Cruel” in 2002. “Farewell, OK” opens the album with Costello shouting through a distorted rockabilly boogie. “Death of Magic Thinking” meshes a pummeling march with a Bo Diddley beat and multiple jabbing, scrabbling guitars, steamrollering through a skewed chord progression and a tale of adolescent bewilderment.

“The Difference” — based, Costello has revealed, on the bleak love story in Pawel Pawlikowski’s 2018 film “Cold War” — has Costello’s guitars and Nieve’s organ tossing bits of dissonance back and forth in the verses, then veers into a poppy major-key chorus that asks, “Do you by chance know wrong from right?”
Over more than 30 studio albums, Costello has regularly tested himself against new genres and new collaborators: classical, country, R&B, hip-hop, jazz. But some of his strongest albums, like this one, have been his reunions with the Attractions/Imposters. Inevitably, there are echoes of Costello’s past on the new album.

“Magnificent Hurt” harks back to the pounding garage-rock and nagging organ of old Costello songs like “Pump It Up.” But the guitar solos are untamed, and there’s a smart Costello twist in the chorus, using just a pause: “It’s the way you make me feel magnificent/Hurt.” With Costello and the Imposters, familiarity breeds audacity, not routine. Some youthful pleasures weren’t illusions at all.

[sweetest punch]

https://floodmagazine.com/97911/elvis-c ... -named-if/

Elvis Costello & the Imposters, “The Boy Named if”

Creating a narrative about one imaginary friend seems at first a bittersweet story more suited to one of Elvis Costello’s more cosmopolitan sets of compositions—a lyrical twist for a Bacharach collaboration or something small and quiet dreamed up by the singer and his longtime pianist/organist Steve Nieve. The Boy Named If (And Other Children’s Stories, as goes its subtitle) is usually gruffer than that, rough stuff with rocky guitars and flinty Farfisas tied to the Costello of yore—the lean, mean early-days punk showing up paradoxes, sowing wild oats, and ripping off puns.

Is there nostalgia to all this, to cleverly cliff-hanging lines such as “Resting in the parlor / Playing cards with Gustav Mahler” (from closer “Trick Out the Truth”), which linger like Noel Coward thought bubbles? Or to The Imposters playing swinging, bash-about pub rock? Probably. Costello spent a chunk of 2021 looking backward to 1978 with a new, various-artists Latinx re-envisioning of This Year’s Model as Spanish Model, so perhaps that vintage album’s prickly vibe rubbed off on he, Nieve, and drummer Pete Thomas, the originators of This Year’s Model’s nervousness.

Wrapped in a pimply, boys-to-men conceptualism, so much of Boy Named If is of a sneery, stabby nature and blunter than Costello’s more sophisticated recent songcraft such as 2018’s Look Now. “I thought you’d change / Get a little humble / You strike your strange disposition / Like a drummer hits a cymbal,” spits Costello in “Farewell, OK” to the accompaniment of mellow-harshing guitars, a noodling Farfisa, and kicking rhythms. The creepy mischief behind “Magnificent Hurt,” meanwhile, is almost as sinister as hearing the beautiful, even brutal indecision of Costello’s lyrics. On the deceptively simple “What If I Can’t Give You Anything but Love?” Costello wrangles forth a fleeting, ominous guitar solo in between rapid-fire mouthfuls of tortured religious impressionism (“Once hearing confession / Was my profession”) and sad-eyed romanticism (“Don’t you need me, baby? / Not one little bit? / Don’t fix me with that deadly gaze / It’s a little close to pity”).

Even when slowing things down on the baleful ballad “Paint the Red Rose Blue,” Costello sounds as if he’s rushing the punchline through his protagonist’s rarely remembered wildest of dreams. That’s good and…not so good. Costello’s mind-racing, overly loquacious, more-pounce-to-the-ounce aesthetic is both his signature and his curse. You can sense Elvis pulling across the seams of the Beatles-esque “Penelope Halfpenny” and straining to contain himself from caterwauling off the edge of the over-aweingly wordy “The Man You Love to Hate” and “The Death of Magic Thinking”—Costello talks so much and crams such lucid, erudite phrasing into one stanza, I’m forced to stretch out a word such as “over-aweingly” just to describe it. With that, this boy is beautiful, ornery, jittery, and brusquely energetic. Its father could just use some editing skills.

[sweetest punch]

https://retropopmagazine.com/elvis-cost ... um-review/

Elvis Costello & The Imposters – The Boy Named If

Elvis Costello & The Imposters show no sign of slowing down with their latest LP ‘The Boy Named If’.

While the world went into lockdown over the past 24 months, Costello has been impressively prolific, releasing two albums – ‘Hey Clockface’ (2020) and ‘Spanish Model’ (2021) – and it seems the latter informed his latest work.

For that record, the musician gathered Spanish-speaking rockers to translate his 1978 album with the Attractions, ‘This Year’s Model’, and on ‘The Boy Named If’ he leans into that sound for a new collection of original material.

The record sees Costello team with The Imposters – the original Attractions, with the addition of bassist Davey Faragher – and the result is a rousing collection of vignettes tackling an array of themes and subject matter.

While the narrative may best be understood by Costello himself, the lyrics are largely accessible – whether it’s infidelity (What if I Can’t Give You Anything But Love?), inappropriate encounters (My Most Beautiful Mistake) or the title character who always seems to escape trouble, the core of the larger-than-life record is essentially human.

[sweetest punch]

https://garden-of-art.com/elvis-costell ... s-explode/

Elvis Costello and the impostors always explode

During the pandemic, many musicians showed off their quieter, shrunken, and more reflective sides. Elvis Costello, typically, had other ideas.

His 2020 album, “Hey Clockface,” was a very contrasting mix: urban retro acoustic pop, bruised rockers, otherworldly electronics. For “Spanish Model” in 2021, he brought together Spanish-speaking rockers to translate lyrics and replace his own vocals on tracks from “This Year’s Model”, his fierce, punk 1978 album with Attractions. Apparently, revisiting the attractions at their most aggressive level sparked something. On “The Boy Named If,” Costello is joined by his perennial band The Imposters – the original Attractions with a replacement bassist – for songs that hit hard and deep. It’s anything but calm.

“The boy named if” has an elaborate superstructure. Its deluxe version adds an 88-page book written and illustrated by Costello: “The Boy Named If and Other Children’s Tales”.

But it is not for children. Each song is given a prose vignette – sometimes fleshing out the lyrics, sometimes sketching out alternate storylines – alongside brilliant, blocky, big-eyed designs. The thumbnails, like the songs, are full of Costello’s edgy pun, and they involve lust, infidelity, violence, predation, betrayal, deception, self-deception, and other hints. adult time.

Situations and puns are gnarly; often they crush the illusions of youth into the disillusionment of adults. The album’s title track postulates a lucky, handsome and elusive imaginary friend, “the boy named If”, who always escapes the consequences. In “What if I can only give you love?” “, On a swaggering pace, an unfaithful husband finds it difficult to understand where he really is with his lover:” Do not stare at me with that deadly gaze / It’s a bit close to pity, “he chokes -he. And in “My Most Beautiful Mistake”, a duet with Nicole Atkins, a writer in a restaurant tells the waitress that he imagines her in movie scenes; she is skeptical. “I’ve seen your kind before,” she observes, “in the courtroom sketches. “

While the lyrics are convoluted, the music just moves forward. Like so many pandemic albums, “The Boy Named If” was remotely reconstructed. Costello, on guitar, worked with drummer Pete Thomas; then he and co-producer Sebastian Krys layered parts of Davey Faragher on bass and Steve Nieve on keyboards.

Still, the Imposters sound merrily, brutally unified, just as spiky as the Attractions on “This Year’s Model” or the Imposters on “When I Was Cruel” in 2002. “Farewell, OK” opens the album with Costello shouting through a rockabilly distorted boogie. “Death of Magic Thinking” mixes a brutal march with a Bo Diddley beat and multiple jabbing and strumming guitars, steamrolling through a biased chord progression and a story of teenage bewilderment.

“The Difference” – based, Costello revealed, on the dark love story in Pawel Pawlikowski’s 2018 film “Cold War” – has Costello’s guitars and Nieve’s organ throwing bits of dissonance into the verses , then veers into a major poppy – key chorus that asks, “Do you happen to know evil from good?” “

On more than 30 studio albums, Costello regularly encountered new genres and new collaborators: classical, country, R&B, hip-hop, jazz. But some of his strongest albums, like this one, have been his reunion with the Attractions / Imposters. Inevitably, there are echoes of Costello’s past on the new album.

“Magnificent Hurt” is reminiscent of the hammering garage-rock and throbbing organ of old Costello songs like “Pump It Up”. But the guitar solos are indomitable, and there’s a clever Costello twist in the chorus, just using a pause: “This is the way you make me feel gorgeous / Hurt.” With Costello and the Impostors, familiarity breeds daring, not routine. Some of the pleasures of youth were not illusions at all.

[Neil.]

There's a video waiting of the title track, released tomorrow:

https://youtu.be/9Tjuygr65SU

[Hawksmoor]

There's a video waiting of the title track, released tomorrow:

https://youtu.be/9Tjuygr65SU

'Premiers in 14 hours'. C'mon, Elvis, are you taking the piss or what? As far as I'm concerned it's Friday in 15 minutes.

You just can't get the staff...

[cwr]

Listening to the album on Spotify in NYC right now...


UPDATE: WOW!!!!

[And No Coffee Table]

"Unboxing" video of the Japanese CD:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDIr2fjuCgI

[Hawksmoor]

"Unboxing" video of the Japanese CD:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDIr2fjuCgI

So the once-rumoured 'CD of remixes' was just a rumour, and the only bonus is 'Truth Drug'?

[Neil.]

"One-hit wunderkind"!!!

LOVE IT!!!