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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.
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