Slant, January 12, 2022

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An adrenaline-fueled picture of fleeting youth


Jeremy Winograd

Elvis Costello
The Boy Named If
4 stars (out of 5) reviews4 stars (out of 5) reviews4 stars (out of 5) reviews4 stars (out of 5) reviews4 stars (out of 5) reviews

Despite his auspicious beginnings as a punk-adjacent firebrand, Elvis Costello has, for the past few decades, eschewed rock music in favor of piano jazz, Tin Pan Alley balladry, and various other adult-pop idioms. Even the singer-songwriter's studio work with the Imposters — essentially the Attractions but with Cracker's Davey Faragher slotted in for the estranged Bruce Thomas — rarely rocks as consistently as the band's live shows. But if The Boy Named If, Costello's 32nd studio album and fourth credited to him and the Imposters, is any indication, he's been deliberately holding out. In its best moments, the album rivals the fractious energy and melodic verve of the singer's classic period.

Costello's last project, Spanish Model, was a reimagining of his 1978 album This Year's Model, featuring an array of Latin artists singing Spanish-language versions of the songs over the original backing tracks. It seems conceivable that the process of excavating and recasting his old material influenced the way that Costello approached The Boy Named If. The Imposters play with a comparable sense of nervous energy here — impressive given that the band mostly recorded their parts separately at their respective homes due to the pandemic.

Costello has described the songs on The Boy Named If as depicting "the last days of a bewildered boyhood to that mortifying moment when you are told to stop acting like a child." It is, perhaps, that sense of fleeting adolescence that turned Costello into the romantically jaded angry young man who made This Year's Model and 1977's My Aim Is True.

On "Magnificent Hurt," Costello proclaims: "But the pain that I felt / Lеt me know I'm alive / And I openеd my heart / To the way you make me feel." It's a vulnerable, tragically romantic sentiment that doesn't sound much like something that the churlish, steeled-off Costello of old would profess. Similarly, on the delightfully playful "Penelope Halfpenny," he marvels over an older crush where the late-'70s Costello would have only sneered.

Throughout much of The Boy Named If, Costello underscores these youthful themes with such zesty melodicism that one could be fooled into thinking that he'd started writing songs with Paul McCartney again. The album's booming blues-pop title track, an ode to mischievous imaginary friend, swings in alternately demented and giddy fashion, while "The Difference" and "Mistook Me for a Friend" barrel ahead with radiant hooks.

With "What If I Can't Give You Anything but Love" and "My Most Beautiful Mistake," Costello offers freewheeling country-inflected songs while still giving the Imposters free reign to work up their usual nervy groove. That's something that could rarely even be said about the Attractions's more formulaic forays into the genre during their heyday in the '80s. Elsewhere, Steve Nieve's rave-y organ licks play expertly against Costello's spitfire vocals on "Magnificent Hurt" and the clattering boogie of "Farewell, OK."

After all that, the tail-end of The Boy Named If finds Costello suddenly back in crooner mode with the soft-shoe swing of "Trick Out the Truth" and the moonstruck "Mr. Crescent." Both tracks are quietly exquisite and provide a comedown from the adrenaline-fueled highs of the album's first half. They underscore the ways in which The Boy Named If is as complete and often thrilling as anything Costello has recorded in years.


Tags: The Boy Named IfThe ImpostersDavey FaragherSteve NieveSpanish ModelThis Year's ModelMy Aim Is TrueMagnificent HurtPenelope HalfpennyPaul McCartneyThe DifferenceMistook Me For A FriendWhat If I Can't Give You Anything But Love?My Most Beautiful MistakeFarewell, OKTrick Out The TruthMr. CrescentTin Pan AlleyThe AttractionsBruce Thomas

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Slant, January 12, 2022


Jeremy Winograd reviews The Boy Named If.

Images

2022-01-12 Sydney Morning Herald photo 01 ms.jpg
Photo credit: Mark Seliger.

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